Guilt Trip
by Kateis
Summary: Being in the water, it changed Luke. Everything he had done, everything he would end up doing, just made it so much worse. How will he cope with the guilt piling on top of him? Without a friend, without anyone. How would he manage?
1. Chapter 1: Recovering

**Cover Luke: **

**'I knew Bonnie was gonna get us both killed, but she continued to walk over to me regardless of the consequences. When the ice gave way the current took me down the lake, once I had gained control I swam to the top. My efforts of trying to smash the ice were pointless, I was panicking too much to do anything, until Clementine came over and started to smash the ice. Every time I saw her hit the ice, I felt myself drifting away and then… darkness.**

**Help Luke: **

**I wanted to get out but I didn't want to risk Clementine's life. I wanted her to go back but, she didn't. The ice broke under her weight and sent us both under. I tried to gain control, once I had, Clementine was in my eyesight again but I saw a lurker approach her. I grabbed the lurker from behind and pushed it below me. As I swam up with Clementine the lurker got a hold of my bad leg and dragged me down. I could only feel panic and my death closing in, I tried to fight its weight but it did no good. I saw Clementine look at me with those saddened eyes once again, the eyes that looked at me in the same way back at the cabin. I felt myself drifting away and then… darkness.**

**After the darkness I felt warm, it was a strange feeling to go from being so cold to a pleasant warmth. When I opened my eyes, there was a fire next to me, no one else was there. Just me, a fire and a notebook and pen. I pulled out a damp notebook from my pocket, the pages were stuck together and the pen was missing. I threw it into the fire to keep it going, I got the other notebook and instantly I knew what to do with it. How I got out of that lake remains a mystery and why I was alone with only a notebook was even more confusing.' **

* * *

Luke closed the notebook, he flicked to the back of it and start to write franticly. The four back pages were covered in numbers, they were all the months from November right up to July. November had some crossed out dates and one was circled.

Luke attempted to get up, the day was young and if he hurried his group might still be there. As he got to his feet he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Luke fell to the ground. A line of blood rolled down the back of his neck.

The house had a couple of inches of snow in it, the air was cold, the sun was in the middle of the sky and there were no clouds to be seen.

The back of Luke's head and his cheek were throbbing, he shook his head and opened his eyes. When he realised the situation he was in he began to struggle.

Luke was somehow in the house, he was tied to a chair and the fireplace behind him was lit.

"Oh? You woke up, it's about time. You've been out for a day. I thought I might have killed you when I gave you a scar." said a stranger that hadn't taken his eyes off Luke since he woke up.

Luke quickly turned his head to the man who was sitting on the stairs opposite him.

"Aw, shit." Luke said as he realised who the man was.

"I can't be that bad."

"You're worse than Carver, Tristan."

Tristan's face was young like a teenagers, although he had burns and scars his face showed innocence. He was wearing a leather jacket and jeans, with a gun holster on his waist.

Tristan looked at a pipe on the ground and then looked back at Luke "That might be the case but we were once friends and friends help each other, that's why I helped you out of that lake and why I gave you that notebook for a birthday present."

"You were stalking us!" Luke exclaimed.

"Yes, but good friends don't just leave each other behind."

"We ain't good friends that ended when you started to fill Carver's head with the worst ideas and stopped me from-"

"From what? Getting a toothbrush. You're hilarious Luke, but seriously it wasn't just pay back for doing what you did, it was about you having perfect teeth." Tristan said craftily.

Luke looked down at the pipe, he knew if he said something that was out of line it would be the end.

"No not the toothbrush, you stopped me from having food for a week. And I did what I did because…" Luke's words trailed off, his face was full of guilt. There was a good reason why Carver wasn't surprised Luke ran off and that was it.

"We lost ten people that day because of you, because you were a coward, you were once like me Luke." Tristan chose his words carefully so that they would get under Luke's skin.

"I was never like you! You escaped from Carver's camp long before me, you're the coward!"

As the conversation continued, Luke was getting closer to undoing the knot that was keeping his hands behind his back.

"I'm glad you think that, but I'm not the coward. I know you Luke, you might be trying to redeem yourself by protecting that little girl, but she almost got you killed and I couldn't stand by and let that happen." Tristan got up from the stairs, slowly he walked over to Luke. "You might think you're a good man but you aren't, I could kill you right now but I won't. If it was the other way around I would already be dead." Tristan crouched down by Luke.

"I'm not trying to redeem myself, I'm just trying to lead people in the right direction." Luke looked down at the pipe again instead of looking at Tristan.

Tristan got up and turned around and picked up a mirror that was lying on the floor. He swivelled around, to show Luke how his face was. A scar, still seaming with blood went from the side of his forehead, past his eyebrow and down to the bottom of his cheek.

"Do you like your make over?"

"What the hell did you do?"

"You needed to pay."

"Pay for what?

"For having sex with Jane. You cheated on Bonnie."

Luke looked down at the ground, away from the mirror. "I apologised."

"Hmph." Tristan began walking back over to the stairs, dropping the mirror as he did, making it break into a million pieces. By then Luke had untied the rope and desperately tried to do the same for his legs before he saw.

"Luke, I know we can be friends once more, all you have to do is find and kill that little gir-" Luke cut Tristan's speech short by kicking him in the knees.

Luke grabbed Tristan's neck, he whispered into his ear. "I would never kill her, we ain't alike." Luke threw Tristan down, he walked over to the pipe, flipping it as he picked it up.

Tristan got up from his hands and knees, desperately trying to plead. "Luke, just put down the pipe and all this can be forgotten about."

Luke looked at Tristan, looked at the pipe and then glanced at Tristan. Luke hit him with the pipe once to knock him out.

"Don't worry, I will forget about this."

'**Maybe ****Tristan**** was right. I'm not a good man, he's now the one tied to a chair while I sit here and write in this notebook. I'm not the same, I think being under the lake has left me with brain damage. I wish Carlos was here so he could check. It's getting harder to be myself, sometimes I feel like I'm losing who I am.' **

Luke once again closed the notebook, pushed it down into his pocket and stood up. Next to the stairs was a backpack full of food and medical supplies.

"Heh, you were always prepared." Luke swung the backpack onto his shoulders and walked outside the back.

His leg was still giving him some trouble, making him limp however his ribs were more painful than before. The air was still crisp, the sun was now beginning its journey to set on the horizon, while Luke started his long journey to find the group. As Luke began to walk on the untouched snow he saw something red. He knelt down and brushed away some of the fresh snow. Under it was a pool of dried blood, a piece of a light blue jacket and adjacent to that was a bullet.

Luke closed his eyes as a tear fell from his face into the blood, when he opened them he looked around for a grave or some sort of hole that would confirm Luke's suspicions. Yet with all the evidence supporting Clementine being dead he couldn't find anything, he examined the area once more and found some tire marks that had almost been completely covered up.

"Well, they must have left in a car." Luke said confidently.

Luke followed the tire tracks as quickly as he could, time wasn't on his side.

* * *

**Two days later**

* * *

'**I'm starting to lose sight of the tire tracks they are almost covered up by fresh snow, I know that they would still be heading north, to Wellington. It's gettin' cold and dark, maybe I will find something soon, something that will help me find them.'**

Luke had walked for miles, the good thing about a car is they can go for miles in no time at all. As he kept walking and writing, he spotted something in the distance. A line of cars. Luke ran in that direction as quickly as his leg would let him, as he ran, snow started to fall. It was like one of those dramatic scenes in a movie, but sadly this was real life. When Luke got close enough he saw a sign saying _Rest Stop 1 mile._

"They had to go there" Luke said as he ran past the sign.

Luke burst into the Rest Stop and looked around for any signs of the group being there, they had to be at least two days ahead of him, which left him little time. He went outside to a playground area and saw something that could break anyone.

**Jane's dead: **

**'I looked in disbelief, the one person other than Clem that I wanted to find was Jane. But there she was standing not too far from me with a knife in her chest, pale grey skin and blood dripping from her. I drew out my machete and with one strike to the head she was gone for good. I think I sat there for at least 10 minutes next to her lifeless body. I couldn't help but think what the hell happened here.'**

**Kenny's dead: **

**'I thought I saw Kenny, but it wasn't him. Well it was, but not anymore, he was a lurker. It pained me to do it but I had to kill him. I drew out my machete and put it right in the middle of his head. There was a gun shot in the side of him, I think something really bad happened here. I really hope Jane didn't go crazy and do this, I'm startin' to get worried about Clem.'**

**Both are dead: **

**'At one side there was Kenny with a bullet in his head and on the other was Jane, with a knife sticking out of her… she was a lurker. I had to kill her, it hurt more than it should've. After seeing that, I knew a fight must have occurred. I just hope Clem wasn't involved and I hope more than anything else that she didn't shoot Kenny in the head, killing someone that was about to turn and killing someone because of a fight are two different situations, one changes you, the other just makes grieving worse.'**

Luke looked up from the notebook and realised the weather was getting worse. The Rest Stop he had been staying in while he wrote in the notebook was starting to let in snow. Luke got up from the floor, threw his backpack onto his back and continued his journey.

The sky was white and the snow was getting deeper. It was getting colder and the snowflakes that were hitting Luke in the face to the point where it looked like Luke's facial hair would fall off were causing him some pain. He jogged down a road into a wood and disappeared in the distance as the snow kept falling.

* * *

**Thirty days later **

* * *

The sun was almost completely out of sight on the horizon, the moon was rising and Luke was setting up camp in a dense wood.

Luke approached a fire he had just lit and sat on the ground next to it. He flipped to the back of the notebook and crossed off a couple of days.

"Wow, 22nd of December, it's almost Christmas." Luke sadly said, he had been walking for a full month but the group was nowhere to be seen "I hope you made it to somewhere safe Clem."

Luke closed his eyes, for the past few days he had no sleep, it was dark and cold but the fire had melted enough snow to keep Luke warm. Before he knew it, he was flat out on the log.

When Luke woke up an alarm clock was going off, he was lying in a double bed in his old room, it was vibrant, full of colour from paintings he had studied. Dazed and confused he looked around his room, it was exactly how he left it on the day the apocalypse started.

"Could it have been all a dream?" Luke questioned as he circled his room.

He staggered down the stairs, he could hear his parents talking in the living room. Just like they were when it started. When he opened the living room door, his parents hugged him, which is what they did at the start of it all. The TV was playing the News in the background, it showed helicopters flying around Atlanta, and fires occupied buildings. In the distance a police car was driving out onto the highway, close to an estate. His parents backed away, they looked like lurkers, with their skin grey and rotten, they bit him on the arm and all his dead friends came through the door, crowded him and ate him alive, tearing him apart.

Luke jumped up, this time he was really awake. The fire had burned out and snow started to fall again. It was early in the morning, the sun was beginning to rise and birds could be heard all around. He stood up from the log and reached in the backpack for a can of food.

Luke sighed "Not much left now, only a few more cans." He looked at the can "Another can of parsnip soup? I hate parsnips." Luke complained.

Luke picked at the tins hook he lifted it up and pulled the top off. He thought back to one distinct Christmas.

_Nick and his family came over for Christmas dinner, our families were always close but it was the first time they came over for Christmas. Nick and I were only 14 years old and we were too busy playing with a new Gameboy I had gotten for a present instead of helping with dinner. Once dinner was ready our families swarmed over the table grabbing all the food they could. Unfortunately our parents said we could only have pudding if we ate all of their parsnips. Something we made a competition out of, whoever ate them first got a bigger slice of cake. I couldn't even eat one so Nick ended up with not only the bigger slice but almost half of the cake. The families took pity on me so they ended up giving me a small slice of cake._ _But now I have to eat parsnips to stay alive, which is difficult since I gag every time I start to eat one._

He started a new fire and began cooking the soup in a chipped as well as broken bowl. "I never want to cook like this again." Said a frustrated Luke.

"I always thought cooking was easy." Luke joked, but realised no one else was there, the smile Luke had created was wiped straight off his face. "Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness. Fuck."

Luke packed away his belongings in the backpack, he had to pick up from where he left off. Walking in the same direction for thirty days seems logically but not a single house nor structure has been in his path. The last time Luke saw a lurker was well over a week ago and the last time he saw a survivor was about three weeks ago but they had been bitten and shot themselves in the head before Luke even got close.

A few hours since Luke had left he got to the end of the wood, in front of him was a vast snow covered field. Crows were flying overhead, the sky was light blue, with clouds breaking up.

"Please let that be the end of all this snow" Luke said in a hopeful voice.

His walk turned into a run, his sad face was now smiling and Luke dived face first into the snow. Maybe Luke had finally lost it but with nothing but snow for miles he couldn't help himself.

Not even ten minutes had passed, but the unscathed snow was now covered in snow angels and pathetic, small snowmen.

When Luke finished being mentally five years old. He brushed off the snow, rubbed his arms to try and warm himself up and looked into the distance in all directions. An important decision had to be made, which way?

Left looked hilly, right had a river and forward was the rest of the field.

After about a minute of debating, Luke chose right.

Even though it had been a month since Luke fell in the lake, he was still scared to go up to rivers. His fear now wasn't as bad as it used to be. When Luke had to get water from a river before that, it would take him at least an hour to even approach it, he was scared to fall in, to feel the panic again. It was something Luke couldn't deal with. Eight days prior to that he almost fell in, but with fast reactions he managed to stay on the river bank.

Luke knelt down by the river and pulled out his bottle from the backpack. The river was very fast flowing, which was good for clean water but not good for Luke's confidence. He cautiously looked behind him. Not a single living thing in sight. Luke was relieved, he didn't have to worry about something pushing him in. He brought the bottle back up, carefully he put the lid back on and turned it tightly closed. Luke picked up his backpack, he observed the area. Further down the river there was a small wooden bridge, he crossed it and looked up at the sky.

"Okay if the sun is there and it's still rising, north must be, this way!" Luke said thoughtfully.

He still hoped Clementine had found Wellington and that she was safe. Maybe Luke could do the same.

The sun ascended to the middle of the sky, it was now midday and the snow covered field didn't look like it was going to end. For the past month Luke had to sleep next to a fire, but there was always the risk he would wake up with a bite mark or he might not wake up at all, shelter was his main priority at that moment.

There couldn't be that many fields without one house coming into Luke's view.

"Is that a house?" Luke questioned. "It is!" Luke said excitedly, as the house came into his view.

Luke ran as fast as he could. The thought of a warm house was something Luke needed to keep him going.

When he made it, Luke judged the house. No lurkers were around but there was one sign that Luke would see a lurker that day. A big red cross covered one of the windows. Big red crosses only meant one thing in a virus outbreak… whoever was there became infected.

A couple of the windows were boarded up and the other two at the front were wide open. There were no signs bandits had looted it, but two years into an apocalypse someone at some point had to have looted it. Luke walked up to the door, he tried to open it. He reached for the handle, carefully turning it and pushing it open, the door was unlocked but there were no signs it has been broken into.

The house had a strange layout. A long corridor ended with a kitchen, to the right there was a door leading to the living room and to the left there was some stairs. Upstairs had a door at the top of the straight stairs, leading to a bedroom. To the right was another bedroom. On the left, there was short corridor, that ended with a bathroom and to the right of that door was the master bedroom.

Luke pulled out his machete and walked around the house, opening each door with caution. Downstairs was clear but upstairs… This is the point where a lurker jumps out and nearly kills Luke but, nothing. No lurker was in the house. So whoever got infected either left or their lurker left.

Luke sat on a bed in the master bedroom, he pulled out his notebook once again and wrote about the past day. Soon after that he turned to the back and crossed off the next day.

"Christmas Eve tomorrow" Luke sighed as he realised he was definitely going to spend this Christmas alone. It would be the first time he was alone on Christmas. Even during the apocalypse he had friends with him during this special holiday.

Before Luke started another emotional torment with himself he went downstairs to search the kitchen for some food. No blood was in the house, no smashed windows or doors, everything was in place maybe the owner just left after finding out they were infected.

The cupboards were filled with food. Some was rotten. Bread, cheese and rotten fruit made the kitchen smell awful. Rubbish bags sat in the corner scrunched up, Luke threw all the rotten food in the rubbish bag. He went outside to the back garden to see if he could find a shovel.

The garden was small, it was a square with a fence surrounding it, there was patio at the front and the rest was grass, or snow. In the corner of the garden was a shed.

"There has to be a shovel in that shed, hah shed…" The word shed still brought back bad memories, Luke never wanted to lock Clementine in the shed but somehow they had to keep their loved ones safe. Just in case it wasn't a dog bite.

Surely enough there was a shovel in the shed. Luke spent more than half an hour digging up the soil. The rubbish bag was full, heavy and smelly. The person who lived here had plenty of fresh food. That's great for your diet in a normal world but not in an apocalypse when the only food that lasts long enough is canned. Luke threw the bag into the hole and pushed all the soil back into it.

"Hopefully that doesn't attract any rats, or lurkers"

The sky was a lovely shade of purple, with orange and pink amongst it. Luke entered the house again, he went into the living room and collapsed on the chair.

* * *

**Meanwhile**

* * *

6th of December

**With Jane: **Clementine hated being at Howe's as it brought back good and bad memories of her dead friends. That family never came back and since then nobody had come close to the camp. One day Jane left to find supplies and never returned. She was nowhere to be found, just gone. Clementine then had to set off on her own with AJ, a little while after she left she found Jane riddled with bites with blood dripping from her head, Clementine investigated only to find a bullet hole in Jane's head.

**With Jane and family: **The family were very helpful, they rebuilt some of the expansion and helped find supplies. But the family should have never been trusted because one night, Randy had started a fire burning all the food, he shot Jane and his family when they tried to intervene. Clementine fled with AJ when Randy was killing his family and she never looked back.

**With Kenny: **Clementine refused to go to Wellington without Kenny, for a couple of weeks they had been travelling together going back south. Clementine was worried about Kenny, but he always said he was okay. Until this one time. Kenny went into a rage about AJ, Clementine had forgotten to clean him which made cry late at night causing Kenny to wake up and become angry. Once he had calmed down he forced Clementine to leave him because he didn't trust himself any more. Clementine reluctantly left with AJ, she didn't want to leave but she had to for AJ's sake.

**In Wellington: **Wellington might have been the safest place to go maybe a few months ago but now, it was overcrowded, food was running low as Edith kept giving away food without permission. Wellington was starting to crumble, fires were set every night along with people rioting, stealing and murdering each other. The safe haven was in anarchy. One night Clementine found a hole in the wall after the crane fell into it, with a way to escape she left with AJ and just kept running.

**Alone: **After getting through multiple herds of walkers Clementine wasn't bothered when walking through a herd anymore, she hardly used her hatchet either. She kept walking in any direction as long as it had supplies and water it didn't matter which way she went.

Only a few weeks after that, Clementine found a vast snow covered field with a river to the right, hills to the left and straight in front was foot prints, snow angels and small snowmen.

"Seems like someone had a lot of fun here AJ, I wish you were old enough so we could play together" Clementine rocked AJ back and forth smiling at him.

"But first I want to follow these footprints maybe I can sneak up on the person and get their stuff. It only looks like one person" Clementine said.

* * *

**Meanwhile **

* * *

Luke sat on the chair for a while. It was comfortable, more comfortable than a log would ever be.

On the arm of the chair was a remote.

"TV…" Luke said quietly. Luke thought to himself.

_Almost everyone in the apocalypse misses TV it was the one thing that could send you into a fit of laughter and make you cry all in the same hour. It was something that could bring families together and was very educational for people that liked art history, for example. _Getting lost in thought was a bad habit however, if Jane taught him anything useful, it was that.

Luke got up and went to investigate the house again. Under one of the cupboards in the kitchen was a box, inside of it was a coat. The coat was dark brown with no hood, it was short – it only went to the waist – but it had big pockets good for food and gun magazines. Well, whoever lived there, they stuffed a coat into a box. Luke searched the rest of the box to find out why it was there. Eventually he found a note in one of the pockets.

_If anyone finds this, this coat has some bullets stored in it, I wasn't supposed to have firearms anymore although I always kept these bullets just in case I needed them, but it's too late for me now_. _Julia Hudson._

The note was signed with a snowflake at the bottom.

"Julia…? Julia Hudson! Snowflake Julia?" Luke said to himself.

When Luke was sixteen he moved to Ohio for a short time, when he was there he met a girl called Julia Hudson. She always signed everything with a snowflake at the bottom. They were good friends, maybe a little more than that. He had returned home before it became 'more'. He had forgotten about Julia until that moment.

Luke stared at the name sadly. "Julia… how can you be dead…?" Luke questioned

Even though the note was signed with Julia's name the coat wasn't a female coat, it was a male coat. It said so right on the tag. Luke examined the coat once more, he looked at the tag again. Written across it was Luke's name. "It's my coat… she kept it…"

With no one else there to comfort him he put the coat at the end of the banister. Luke looked behind him the door had a glass oval in it. He looked outside the sky was pitch black and stars were clearly seen all around.

The house was dark, Luke looked around for some candles but he couldn't find any.

"I guess I'm just going to have to manage being in a dark house." Luke mumbled to himself.

Yet again he entered the master bedroom, he sat on the edge of the bed for a while, staring at the wall.

"This is all my fault, I shouldn't even be alive…" He admitted to himself.

Before Luke could cause himself more pain, he lay back on the bed and drifted off.


	2. Chapter 2: Closer than Ever

The next morning, the sun was shining directly over the house as it rose up from the horizon, birds were making a racket on the rooftop and Luke was lying, asleep in a starfish position across the bed.

Luke woke up to something tapping on his shoulder. He sluggishly turned his head to the side and opened his eyes.

"Lu… Luke?"

Luke had that feeling when you wake up, you just want to go back to sleep and ignore what's going on around you.

He sat up and let his vision become clear.

"Is… is it really you"

When Luke realised who was in front of him, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Clem?" Luke finally said as he stood up. Clementine had a new coat, or rather a hoodie. It was a gleaming purple, with a warm thick hood, perfect for winter. Her face had several new scars, one even went from her cheek down to her chin and she had many scratches, but what was clearer than all the wounds were her eyes, they were as weak as AJ.

The two just stood there, looking at each other, like they had just seen a ghost. Except, for Clementine it must have felt that way too.

After a few moments of them staring at each other, Clementine hugged Luke and did so for more time than Luke was comfortable with.

"Hey, kid. You might lettin' go?"

Clementine let go and staggered back. She looked down at AJ and noticed for the past 30 seconds she had been crushing him.

"Sorry… You're dead." Clementine said without taking her eyes off AJ.

Luke crouched down and put his hands on Clementine's shoulders.

"Well I'm not dead. I don't know the full story of how I got out, but I did."

Clementine's eyes started to tear up. "Everyone is gone now… I tried to make the best of it but people died or got lost. I've thought of giving up but AJ needs me, he's been keeping me sane."

Luke watched Clementine begin to cry, her tears falling off her face onto AJ which rolled of his blanket onto the cold, hard wood floor.

"Clem, it's okay. Everything is fine. We're fine. You can't blame yourself. Remember what you told me?" Luke said in a reassuring voice.

"Yes." Tears bowled down Clementine's cheeks as she said it.

"Clem, don't cry, we'll be fine."

"People have said that before, they ended up dead." Clementine looked up at Luke as if she still didn't believe he was alive.

"I can't promise anything, but we'll look out for each other."

"That's what you said about everyone we set out with…"

Luke looked at Clementine guiltily, like he knew everything that happened with the original group was his fault.

"I… I…" Luke didn't know what to say, for the first time it felt like Clementine was blaming him.

"Its fine, Luke. Don't worry about it. I just don't want the same thing to happen."

"History only repeats itself if you let it." Luke stood up, he proceeded over to the window and peered out.

"Listen, you see any lurkers on your way here?"

"No, I haven't seen one since last week"

"Okay. Good, good. We have time."

"Time for what?"

"We can make a plan, find a way to maybe make this place safe."

"You mean, stay here?"

"There's nothin' out there, trust me I've been looking for hours. Stayin' here is our only choice."

"I have a choice, I can leave if I want."

Luke turned away from the window and glared at Clementine. As she said those words something broke in Luke, Clem and AJ were his _last anchor, _without them he had nothing to fight for.

"You… you would leave me?" Luke kept staring at Clementine, her next answer was more important to him than anything else in that moment.

Clementine looked down at AJ and then back at Luke. "Probably."

"Clem, y… you don't mean that… I can look out for you."

Clementine looked at Luke right in the eyes. "Until you die."

"Jesus, Clem. Why are you being like this?"

Clementine walked to the door of the master bedroom, she looked back at Luke.

"I just don't want to watch you die." Clementine confessed.

Luke looked down at the ground "Are you going to leave?" Luke had almost whispered the question. He didn't want to know the answer.

"No, I saw a cot in one of the bedrooms, AJ needs some real rest."

Luke couldn't have sighed louder. "Okay."

While Clementine was getting AJ comfortable, Luke was in the kitchen standing behind a dining room chair with a map spread out on the dining table.

"That State's a mess, already been there, I wouldn't want to go back there. I'm guessing I'm here." Luke had his eyes fixed on the map, he knew where not to go and where they could go.

Clementine walked into the kitchen and towards Luke who was talking to himself.

"Why are you talking to yourself?" Clementine sat down, opposite to where Luke was standing.

"Huh? Oh I, uh. I picked it up from being on my own." Luke didn't even take his eyes off the map. "See if you can find a pen."

Clementine looked around the kitchen for a pen, opening every draw and cupboard, until she found one inside a mug on the windowsill.

"Here." Clementine handed over the pen to Luke.

"Thanks Clem."

"Sorry, about before. I've just been feeling moody lately. I can't control my anger and emotions."

Luke looked at Clementine shocked. "Do you know about hormones?"

"Yeah, Christa told me about them. You don't think, I could be starting, puberty?"

"Uh, I'm a little too uneducated in that department but if my mother taught me anything about _that_ is that you can start when you're ten. How old are you?"

"Eleven."

"It's rare that girls your age really _start_."

"Let's just hope its hormones and it won't turn into…periods."

"Okay, just tell me if you ever need- woman stuff."

Luke took off the pen lid and circled all the places that were the worst places to go. "The places I'm circling, we should never go there."

"Why not?"

"People that came to Carver's camp told us of places that were overrun with lurkers or that were full of bandits. Sometimes people said there were full communities of cannibals. Also buildings had writing on the walls, some people are good enough to warn other survivors."

Luke hadn't seen too many buildings that had notes on the walls but there was one he could never forget.

_When the apocalypse started, mine and Nick's families all found a bunker to hide in. Little did we know, we weren't the first people to hide down there. Notes covered all of the walls. Some giving information about the area, most gave meeting times and death notes but a select few warned people to not go to certain places. From that moment on I tried to remember the locations and marked them on maps that I managed to find._

"Oh" said Clementine "Well that's useful, I've never seen anything like that."

"Really?"

"Yes, I've never seen a single note."

Luke started to star some locations on the map.

"These locations are where we can go, places I've never been to."

"But they might not be safe."

"Nowhere is safe Clem."

"I don't know if I can trust you. It's been so long, how do I know you're telling the truth?"

"Really! Clem y'know you can trust me." Luke put his hands on his hips. "Okay that's all the places we can go, you can decide which state."

"Why is Texas circled?" Clementine looked up to Luke and back down to the circled Texas. "Mike said he wanted to go there."

"Texas is full of bandits. I'm glad you guys didn't go to Texas, it's the worst place to go. Probably. Anyways what happened to Mike?"

Clementine stood still as if she had seen her worst nightmare and didn't say a word.

"…I shouldn't have asked, I always ask you the worst questions."

Clementine looked at Luke with those eyes, those eyes that were always sad.

"Mike (Bonnie) and Arvo tried to leave. Mike tried to take my gun but before he did… Arvo shot me in the shoulder."

Luke's expression went from sad to angry in a millisecond, then to concerned. "You okay? Has the wound healed?"

"I'm fine, I'm not sure if it's healed, I never looked."

"Oh." Silence fell as the two awkwardly looked at each other. "So, the plan! Stay here for a few days, or move on now?"

"Stay here for a few days, I need to rest."

"Okay then, you go sleep. I will search the house for anything I missed."

Clementine went upstairs to her new temporary bedroom. As Luke entered the living room. Nothing was really in there that Luke had not already searched. The cupboard that the TV was placed on was empty, nothing was under the chairs and only dust occupied the shelves.

Luke crept upstairs to avoid waking up Clem and AJ. He went into the bathroom at the end of the corridor. Again there was only a few places to look. Luke searched under the bath, sink and toilet but there nothing was to find. As he had given up on the bathroom he saw a crack in the wall, it was big enough for his hand to slide through. Luke pushed his hand through the hole in the wall. Just like a horror movie, something grabbed his hand, it was a lurker. Luke tugged and pulled his arm back with his other hand but the lurker wouldn't let go, it just kept dragging Luke's arm in. After many pulls and tugs Luke fell back, with the lurkers arm lying on his stomach. He threw the arm off him to the corner of the bathroom, he picked up a convenient screwdriver from the floor and approached the hole. The lurker stuck its head against the hole, giving Luke a fright. He shoved the screwdriver into the lurkers head, slowly it slid down to the bottom of the hole.

Luke pulled himself up from the ground, covered in blood but safe. When he opened the bathroom door, Clementine was standing right in front of the door.

"You scared the hell out of me!" Luke said.

"Sorry, I need to go to the restroom."

"It's fine."

Luke walked passed Clementine as she went into the bathroom. He turned to the master bedroom, he looked over his shoulder at the room AJ was resting in. He shook his head and walked into the bedroom. He sat on a chair in the corner of the room, he pulled out the notebook and began to write.

'**I was happy to see Clem, but AJ… I can barely look at him without thinking of Becca and Alvin, I just, I feel guilty that they're not here. If I hadn't of got caught when trying to steal that food back at Carver's camp they would still be here now.'**

"Luke?"

Luke slammed the notebook shut and put it down the side of the chair.

"Stop scaring me like that…!"

"What were you doing?"

"I, uh… I was just thinking."

"You weren't _just _thinking, were you?"

Luke looked out the window that was next to the chair. It was dark outside, the reflective moon projected light onto Luke's face, the stars were brightly glistening, only then did Luke realise the day had just slipped away.

"Yeah, I was just thinking, nothin' special."

"I have something to show you."

Luke turned towards Clementine "What is it?"

"A box full of winter clothes."

"Cool."

Luke entered Clementine's room at the top of the stairs, the room was pink and purple full of glowing in the dark stars on the ceiling, which kept the dark room light.

"In this box here."

On the bed there were 4 cardboard boxes, one piled high with books, another had jewellery, one of them was full of Teddy Bear's and other plush toys and the last one had winter clothes crammed into a small box. The winter clothes ranged from scarfs and gloves to jackets and trousers.

"Did you even go to sleep?"

"I think I did but I woke up from the sound of you messing in the restroom. I wanted to see if I could find something."

"Well these will be useful for the next few months"

"Can we go play outside tomorrow?" Clementine asked excitedly.

"Uh, sure. I almost forgot, tomorrow is Christmas day!" Luke smiled at Clementine at the thought of spending Christmas with someone.

"Really! I love Christmas… but there won't be any presents."

"We'll find somethin' to give each other."

Clementine looked up at Luke, those eyes were now happy. Something had lifted from Clementine she was now allowed to be happy.

"Come on, let's get some sleep."

Luke and Clem both reverted to their beds. Resting up was important, especially if you're going to play in the snow.

* * *

Night had passed. The clouds were back and snowflakes were gently falling to the ground, each on adding to the already deep snow, which made the ground a sparkling white. It was the white Christmas every child wanted.

Clementine awoke from her slumber, when she was picking out the scarf and gloves she wanted she heard something that was rare in the apocalypse coming from the room AJ was in. It was Luke, singing a Christmas song Clementine didn't know the name of. She stopped for a moment and listened.

Luke was rocking AJ back and forth. He was feeding him, while singing 'Merry Xmas Everyone'.

Clementine continued trying to find something that suited her. She picked out a lilac scarf and black gloves.

Luke put AJ back into the cot. He went to Clementine's door.

"Can I come in?" Luke shouted.

"Yes" Clementine shouted back.

"What were you singing before?"

"You don't know? It's a Christmas classic."

Clementine looked at him blankly.

"Slade?"

"I can't remember the songs."

"Oh."

Luke looked at Clementine decked out in winter clothing she was ready for winter fun.

"That looks warm."

"It is, hurry up so we can go outside."

Luke knelt down by the box. Everything was mainly for females but there was a couple of male scarfs and gloves. Luke picked out a red, yellow and black scarf and dark blue gloves.

"I guess we're ready to go."

"You don't have a coat."

"I do, it's on the banister downstairs."

"Okay, I'll be waiting for you outside." Clementine sprinted out of her room, down the stairs and straight out the door.

Luke followed, once he got down the stairs he put the coat, scarf and gloves on and ran outside.

The two played in the snow for hours, building snowmen all around the house. They were all different shapes and sizes. They even attempted making themselves as snowmen but they failed horribly.

"We should have a snowball fight!" Clementine suggested.

"Okay then." Luke grabbed some snow, rolled it into a ball and threw it towards Clementine.

Clementine dodged it. "You're going to have to try harder than that." Clem teased, as she picked up some snow and threw it at Luke.

The pile of snow hit him right in the face. "Hey, that wasn't even a ball!"

The snowball fight must have went on for half an hour. Clementine was winning, Luke could've been letting her win or his aiming was poor.

"My arms are getting tired." Clementine moaned.

"Wanna go inside?"

"Yes…" Clementine looked up at the sky. It was purple colour, the sun was starting to set.

"Oh my god! AJ!"

"We better see if he's alright!" Luke ran inside to AJ's bedroom. Clementine followed close behind.

Luke stood frozen at the door, he was scared to go in.

"Luke go in!"

Luke just stood there, motionless.

"Hmph…" Clementine elbowed Luke out of the way, opened the door and loomed over the cot.

She picked up AJ. Clementine had her eyes closed, she opened them and looked down at AJ.

AJ was squirming and began to cry. "He's okay. Luke, he's okay."

Luke walked over to Clementine and looked down at AJ. "I thought he might of… how could we forget about him?"

"I don't know."

"I'll go dinner started, you feed AJ."

After Luke had taken off his winter clothes, he entered the kitchen. He crouched down by a cupboard that was filled with cans, there must have been 80 cans. Most of the cans were out of date. Beside Luke was another rubbish bag.

Clementine skipped into the kitchen. "What are we having?"

"Clem, wanna play a fun Christmas game?"

"What game?"

"Find which cans are in date."

"What year is it?"

Luke glanced over at Clementine everyone had forgotten what date it was, the old ways of the past world were disappearing faster and faster every day.

"2005"

"Okay, but it sounds boring."

"Come on, it'll be fun."

Clementine gave Luke the _classic moody teenager face._

"It isn't going to be fun."

Luke pushed out all the cans. Clementine knelt beside Luke and the cans. One by one the cans were put into the rubbish bag.

Clementine stared at a can.

"Hmm, it says 'December 2005' do you think it will be okay?"

"I'm not sure, keep it for now."

After a few minutes all that was left was 30 cans. The rest had been thrown into the rubbish bag.

"Some of these last until 2006, we eat those last."

"What are we having tonight?"

"How does hot dogs sound?"

"It won't be the best Christmas dinner but okay."

"You've probably eaten worse. You didn't know the date for the last 2 years."

"Just start dinner."

Luke got matches, a tin opener and a pan. "I hope the gas still works." Luke turned the gas on, struck a match and put it on the hob, the ring lit up with a bright blue flame. Clementine was watching everything Luke was doing.

"Okay, good. We have gas." Luke opened the tin of hot dogs and poured them into the pan, he moved the pan onto the gas. "They should take about 15 minutes."

"Can we have the tin of chocolate cake afterwards?"

"I was going to save that for New Year."

Clementine looked down, she shuffled her foot around.

"Why does it matter?"

"New year is just as important."

"Why?"

"I don't know, it was always a big event in my household."

"I can't remember what it was like."

"Well, people would set off fireworks and count down the last 10 seconds to midnight. It was big because it was a _new year_."

Clementine whined. "But it's Christmas!"

Luke sighed. "Fine."

"Yay."

"Clem, go find some plates, I think they're in that cupboard over there."

Once Clementine got the plates, Luke put an equal amount of hot dogs on each plate. Clementine and Luke sat at the dining table, opposite each other. It was silent for a moment while the two gorged on their hot dogs.

"When should we leave?" Luke asked. "You have to decide where we go."

"We'll look at the map tomorrow, I don't want to think about that now."

"Okay. How's the hot dogs?"

"They're nice, it's weird having a hot meal."

Luke picked up the empty plates, "You wanna go get that tin of chocolate cake?"

"I'll serve it!" Clementine picked up the chocolate cake tin, she grabbed the tin opener.

Luke put the dishes into the sink. He turned to the struggling Clementine. "Need some help?"

"No I've got it."

"You sure about that?"

"Pretty sure."

"Let me help you."

"Okay." Luke took the tin and opened it within a few seconds.

"Here." Clementine took the tin, she turned it upside down on a plate.

"We can just share it on this plate."

"Haha, given up?"

"Yes…"

Luke got out two spoons and gave one to Clem.

"So, how has this Christmas been?"

"It isn't as good as it would've been… before, with my family but I've enjoyed it."

"Well, I'm glad. Christmas is better with family but we're family now."

Clementine and Luke smiled at each other.

"Wanna sort out presents?"

"Alright" Clementine ran out of the kitchen.

Luke opened one of the cupboards, he pulled out a little box.

Clementine ran back into the kitchen. "Here." Clementine handed Luke something wrapped in a blanket.

"I got you this Clem." Luke gave the box to Clementine.

They opened their gifts at the same time. Clementine had gotten Luke a plush dog toy. Luke had gotten Clementine a bracelet, it was silver with purple gems fitted into it.

"It's beautiful." Clementine put it on her small, delicate wrist. "It's a little big."

"You got me a toy dog." Luke laughed. Except this toy used to be Luke's he always wondered where it got to.

"When you said" Clementine put on her best Luke impression. "'You don't kill dogs' I knew you were a dog lover."

"Hey! I don't sound like that."

"You do! Luke can you tighten the bracelet for me?"

"Yeah." As Luke tightened the bracelet, Luke admitted. "I am a dog lover, I'd rather kill a dead human than a dog."

"It was hard… to kill him."

"Huh. Well, I tightened it. Let's go to bed. I'll check on AJ. He's too quiet for a month old baby."

"I thought you didn't know anything about babies."

"I didn't know anything about labour, I know some things about babies."

Clementine and Luke both walked up the stairs. Clem went into her room while Luke went to AJ's.

AJ was lying in the cot staring up at the ceiling. Luke left the bedroom and went to his. He picked up the notebook that he had put behind the chair. He brushed some dust off it and stuffed it into his pocket.

* * *

Another day had passed, normally it would be Boxing Day, but to Clementine and Luke it was the day they would have to resume their survival strategies.

Luke was once again in the kitchen with the map spread across the table.

"CLEMMMMMM!"

Clementine was fast asleep but Luke's shouting woke her up.

Clementine stumbled into the kitchen, she rubbed her eyes. "You'll attract walkers if you shout that loud again."

"Nah… Come look at the map, pick where we should go."

Clementine studied the map.

"So where are we?"

"I saw a few signs, I think we're in Ohio."

"Let's go south. I'm so sick of snow."

"How far south should we go to, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana? Or Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia?"

"I used to live in Georgia…"

"Oh. Well, let's not go there."

"This is a hard decision, Luke. What if I lead us somewhere bad?"

"Then we'll deal with it, but right now, we need a plan. What state did you really want to go to as a kid?"

"Luke, I'm still a kid."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Good point."

"I always wanted to go to California."

"That's too far, Clem."

"I know. We should just keep walking south."

"Okay, I guess that's a plan. We should pack up and go now, while it's still early."

Clementine packed AJ's things into a backpack, put on her coat and gloves and took a book from the other box. Luke put the rest of the cans into the backpack, strapped his machete back on, put on his coat and threw his backpack onto his back. The two met at the door.

"You, ready?" Luke asked.

"Yes, I've got everything." Clementine replied as she pulled on her gloves.

"Let's go then." Luke opened the door, they walked outside simultaneously. Luke looked up at the sun. "South is this way."

Clementine, Luke and AJ started a journey that could only end with regret. As they walked off into the distance, a herd of walkers was in the north, heading to where the house was.


	3. Chapter 3: Risking it All

The sky was a mixture of blue and yellow just like a painting, since Luke and Clementine had left so early, the day was still young and had plenty of possibilities.

"According to that sign there, we're now in Kentucky." Luke said as he was staring down at the map. Clementine was sitting on a rock feeding AJ.

"We should try and find somewhere to rest."

"Not yet, it's not even midday. We should keep movin'."

Once Clementine was done with AJ they continued heading south. Luke avoided anywhere that looked like a town or village it was too risky to go there because of AJ.

The added responsibility of AJ makes surviving harder, having a baby was hard enough in the old world but in this world its worse. Baby formula is in short supply and the odds of AJ making it to his first birthday are lower than they should be.

"_Luke remember to feed your cousin." _Luke's mother's words echoed in his head.

_Back when I was a teenager I had to look after my baby cousin, I couldn't even manage that, he ended up in hospital because of me. How am I going to look after a child properly in an apocalypse?_

Clementine and Luke were walking down a road surrounded by trees, there was little snow and the temperature was starting to get higher.

"How did you look after AJ so long on your own?"

"I don't know. All he needs is to be fed."

"What about changin' him?"

"Um…"

"He hasn't been changed?"

"No..."

"Well, we need blankets…"

"Yes…"

As Clementine and Luke kept walking there was a small, dark, and dusty dirt road next to the tarmac one they were walking on.

"It says a hotel is down here. We should go Luke, it might have blankets."

"Okay, keep an eye out for lurkers."

The dirt road was never ending. Eventually Clementine and Luke saw a building in the distance, the trees started to become less dense and as they did a small group of lurkers could be seen near the entrance.

"There's only 4 of 'em. We should be alright." Luke said.

"Okay, let's go." Clementine pulled out a survival knife and Luke drew out his machete.

Clementine got the attention of two walkers while Luke distracted the other two.

Clementine kicked one of the walkers in the knee and stabbed it in the head. She stepped back and did the same to the other walker.

Luke sliced the head of one of the walkers. Its body fell on Luke, which caused him to trip. As Luke pushed it off the other walker got on top off Luke, knocking his machete out of reach.

"Clem!"

Clementine ran over, she stabbed the walker in the back of its head and helped pull it off Luke.

"Thanks Clem." Luke said as he stood up, brushing the dust from the lurker off him.

"You're welcome." Clementine smiled but then she noticed something red dripping from Luke's left hand.

"Luke your hand!"

Luke raised his left hand in front of his face. His left little finger was bitten.

_I have a history of people getting bitten in strange places. My father was bitten on the ear and my mother was bitten on the lip when she kissed my father one last time. It must run in the family._

"How the fuck did it bite me there." Luke's face was full of panic. "Clem, you have to cut it off!"

"Okay!" Clementine didn't even hesitate.

"Wait, wait." Luke pulled some bandages out of the backpack. "Okay, okay." Luke ran over to a rock that was close by. Clementine followed. Luke pressed his hand against the rock. Clementine pulled her hatchet out quickly. She raised it up and swung it down onto Luke's finger, chopping it clean off.

"ARGH, FUUUUUUUUUUUCK"

The finger rolled off the rock, into the remaining snow. Luke held his hand, it was squirting blood out everywhere. Luke handed the bandages to Clementine and she wrapped it tightly around Luke's hand. It was all over in a couple of seconds.

"That fucking hurt."

"How is it?"

"I think it'll be fine. I'm gonna be fine."

"Luke look, more walkers."

"Let's just go, it's not worth the risk."

The two started to run back to where they started on the tarmac road.

"I'm gonna die Clem."

"You only got bit on the finger, you'll be okay."

"I hope so."

Clementine and Luke kept running, they got back to the tarmac road and continued to run.

"Clem, ca… can we stop? I'm tired." Luke sat down and rested back on a tree beside the road. His face was pale, he was getting weaker with every breath he took.

"Sure." Clementine walked over to Luke and sat next to him.

"I think the fever is settin' in. I told you I was gonna die." Luke tried his best to joke even though his death was nearing.

"No… We cut it off you're gonna be okay."

"I'm not Clem. I'm gonna turn, you can't shoot me so you'll have to stab me."

"I... I can't do that."

"Then you'll have to leave me."

"I don't want to. You're all I have left"

"Clem, you are strong, you can do this."

"You don't a fever."

"Clem, leave me."

"No..."

"Go."

"Luke... please don't do this."

"I can feel it." Luke said quietly.

Luke closed his eyes and nodded off. It was like he was going to sleep but he was really dying.

"Luke? Shit..."

Clementine waited, she didn't want to leave Luke to turn. With AJ in one arm and her hatchet in the other, she stood there. Seconds soon became minutes but Luke still didn't turn.

Luke's head twitched, Clementine raised up her hatchet. He opened his eyes, the eyes that should have been long dead.

Luke had little strength. "I told you to go." He said quietly.

"I can't leave you as a walker."

"Please Clem..."

"You don't have a fever! We are going to make it!" Clementine demanded.

Luke felt the back of his neck. It was dry and cold but it wasn't sweaty or clammy

"You're right." Luke said as he coughed violently.

"Luke!"

"It's okay, if it's not the bite then what is it?"

"I don't know… blood loss?"

"I didn't loss that much blood." Luke gawked at his hand. The bandage was a deep red instead of white. "Oh, uh… Clem do we have more bandages?"

"Yes, we have plenty." Clementine put her backpack down, lay AJ on top and took some bandages out of her backpack. She untied Luke's bandage. Reminded of what happened in the shed she took some hydrogen peroxide out of Luke's backpack. When Luke wasn't looking she poured some on his wound.

"Argh! You could've given me some warning."

"Sorry." Clementine said as she tied the bandage around Luke's hand. "Apply more pressure this time so you don't loss all of your blood."

Luke smiled. "I'm tired… Clem… I'm so tired."

"Don't sleep yet." Clementine closed her eyes. "You might not wake up again."

Luke shoved his hand into his pocket, he pulled out the notebook.

"Take this, keep track of the days…" Luke drifted off again, his head hit his chest. His arm was stretched out with the notebook in his hand. Clementine inspected the notebook, she took it out of his hand. Clementine peeped inside and skimmed the pages.

"Luke... He should've said something."

Clementine put the notebook down. "I'm staying until you turn." She shuffled back.

* * *

The next time Luke woke up he saw Clementine reading the notebook.

"Did you guys actually have a singing competition?" Clementine said as she raised her head above the notebook.

"Yeah, those were simpler times, when Carver was good and there wasn't many lurkers."

Clementine closed the notebook. "Cool. I'm glad you woke up."

"I guess I ain't gonna die yet." Luke had gotten some of his strength back, his pale cheeks were gaining colour.

Clementine, turned her head to the right and then to the left. She lingered on looking to the left.

"Luke! Look!" Clementine pointed to the left. A cloud of dust was in the distance after another second or two the dust lifted. Hundreds of walkers were heading towards Luke and Clementine. They were slow but with that many, it wouldn't take too long for them to arrive at the tree Luke was resting on.

"Shit. Okay, we gotta go."

"Can you move?"

"Yeah..."

Luke gradually got up. Clementine picked up AJ, put on her backpack and handed the notebook to Luke. He took it and slid it into his pocket.

The two began to run further up the road. As they kept running the tarmac was fading, lampposts were lined at the side; the trees were breaking up revealing fields.

In the field to the left there were several abandoned cars, on the right there was an empty field, with a box at the side of the road.

"Come on Clem maybe one of those cars work."

"What about that crate Luke?!"

"The lurkers ain't that far behind, we gotta go!"

"We could check quickly."

"No!"

"Luke if we are quick we can do this."

Clementine ran over to the right side of the road, Luke quickly followed. Clementine held open the supply crate. Luke peered into it. It was filled with dust and blood, nothing else was inside of it. Luke looked over to the herd; they were getting closer, Clementine and Luke were running out of time.

"Damn it! Clem, run!"

Clementine and Luke ran over to the other field. There were 5 vehicles. 3 cars and 2 vans.

"Look for keys." Luke said as he was peered in one of the vans.

"I found some in this car Luke."

"Okay, I found keys for this car as well. The vans had nothing. How much fuel does your car have?"

"It's half way between empty and full."

"Alright, this one is almost empty. We go in yours."

The car was an average estate car, 5 doors and 5 seats. Clementine and Luke jumped into the car. Luke started the engine with no troubles. He turned the car around; he drove it back onto the road.

"That was close." Clementine said as she was looking over her shoulder.

"Yeah, is AJ okay?"

"He's fine."

"Got your seatbelt on?"

"Yes."

"Clem, back there. That was risky. We can't do that again. Who knows what would've happened if this car didn't work."

"But it did."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Are we still heading south?"

"I think so." Clementine glanced at AJ sadly, she leaned on the car window and looked out into the distance. "Going back, it now means everyone who died… died in vain."

Luke looked at Clem. "I'm sorry." Luke took his eyes off Clem and watched the road.

"It's not your fault, I wanted to go south."

Luke slowed down; he stopped by the side of the road.

"Then we go somewhere else."

Clementine lifted her head from the window. "Where...?"

"We go east, to the place I was originally going."

"What's that?"

"You'll see."

"Hmph, okay."

Luke started up the car and drove off. Further up the road he went left.

Clementine started to investigate the car, looking for any supplies. She opened the glove box, papers and documents were still slotted inside of it. She moved some papers around. A plaster fell out of one of the papers.

"Luke we could put this on your wound."

"Okay" Luke moved his left hand over to Clementine; he kept his right hand on the wheel.

* * *

The trees beside the road cleared up into fields, on the left was a hill and in front of the car was a lone tree. When Clementine was done putting the plaster on his hand, Luke's right hand slipped spinning the car into the lone tree.

Birds that were resting on the tree scattered. The bonnet was on fire, the windscreen had a hole in it and the raging flames gave Clementine and Luke little time to get out.

Luke undid his seatbelt; he opened the door and ran to the other side. Clementine was unconscious, Luke reached over and undid her seatbelt. He dragged her out, the flames grew more and more every second. Once Clementine was far enough away, Luke caught his breath. He realised AJ wasn't with them. Luke began to run over to the car but before he could get close enough the car exploded suddenly, sending Luke backwards.

Luke got up to his knees, putting his head into his hands he almost began to cry, Luke couldn't bring himself to go over to the car. A fresh cut had appeared on the side of his forehead. He pulled himself together, Clementine was now the only thing that mattered. Luke lifted up Clementine into his arms, he looked around in a circle, in the distance was a house on top of a hill, Luke had to take the risk. The noise from the explosion meant he had to get away from the car sooner than later.

Next to the tree lay a small, burnt and charred body, barely breathing but still alive.

'**I don't know what happened today. This morning we were in a house planning our journey. Now, I have lost a finger, AJ is dead, Clementine is still unconscious and it's all my fault again. I could've saved him, I should've have thought about him first… but all I did was leave another person behind.'**

Luke closed the notebook gently. He put his hand up to his forehead and pushed it through his hair, down to his neck. Staring at the notebook Luke flicked to the back, he crossed off the day.

Luke had made it to the house. When he first arrived, inside there were 4 walkers. It only had one floor and one bedroom. Luke was sitting on a sofa in the living room. To the right side of the sofa was the door to the kitchen. Behind the sofa was the bedroom. On the left was the front door and beside that was the door to the bathroom. In front of the sofa there was a fireplace that Luke had lit. The house was surrounded by a stone wall and had a road leading out of it to a main road.

Luke stared at the door behind him, he eventually got up to open it, when there was an abrupt knock on the front door. Drawing out his machete Luke approached the door. The door swung open revealing the person who had knocked.

"Tristan…" Luke didn't look pleased to see him. Tristan had his hands behind his back.

"Oh lighten up Luke, I came here to give you this." Tristan brought his hands forward, a gun was in them.

"What?" Luke moved towards Tristan. He put his hands up dropping his machete.

"Wait! I won't kill you as long as you kill that girl. If you don't I'll kill you."

"Why do you want to kill her so badly?"

"Seriously? You forgot? It's my hobby."

"Uh…What?"

"I thought you had a good memory Luke." Tristan shook his head as he handed the gun to Luke.

Luke stepped back from the gun. "I won't kill her and you won't kill me!" Luke shouted.

Luke tried to be smart choosing every word and action with care.

"Tristan, please d-"

"Come on at least make this fun, I'm getting sick of you just standing there."

Tristan pointed the gun at Luke. "You have Twenty seconds or I kill you and that girl."

Luke breathed deeply. "Tristan, please. Please don't!"

"Ten seconds, you're running out of time." Tristan smirked.

"No! Tristan, you don't have to do this."

"Out of time." Tristan pulled the trigger. The gun clicked.

"Out of time? Or out of ammo?" Luke joked, folding his arms as he did.

Tristan continued to pull the trigger, several times, each time the gun clicked. Luke was killing himself laughing. He picked up his machete, walked up to the confused Tristan and knocked the gun out of his hand. Pointing the machete to his neck, Luke whispered into his ear.

"If you ever stalk us again, I will kill you before you even say a word. Do you understand?"

Tristan nodded, he backed away from Luke and ran out the door with haste. Luke dropped to his knees out of breath but triumphant. He looked over his shoulder at the bedroom door, Clementine stood there shocked but somewhat proud.

"Luke! Are you okay?"

"I… I'm fine."

"Where are we?"

Luke tried to avoid eye contact with Clementine. "Clem, why don't we sit down? I have something to tell you."

"Okay..."

Luke and Clementine sat down on the sofa, the fire began to burn out, making the room dark and depressing.

"Listen, Clem. We were in a car crash. I got you out… The car exploded, I thought AJ was dead but…"

Clementine eyes started to tear up. "But...?"

Luke closed his eyes "I never went back to check, so… he could've been alive."

Clementine almost burst into tears. She began to hit Luke multiple times in the arm, Luke didn't flinch nor open his eyes.

"AJ is dead! Because of you, you caused his death! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"

Clementine then reduced herself into tears, she buried her head into Luke's chest. Luke opened his eyes and put his arm around Clementine. "I'm sorry, it's all my fault."

The two sat there, both of them were crying. Luke was crying slightly while Clementine was flooding the room with tears.

"Who was that man?" Clementine said while wiping the tears away from her eyes.

"An old… enemy, he stalked us, saved me from the lake and almost killed me."

"Why did he want you dead?"

"I don't know… I did something that changed him."

"Oh…"

"He wanted to be my friend again." Luke continued. "If I killed you he would be my friend."

"So, you refused…"

"Yes, if his gun had ammo, this conversation..." Luke words trailed off once more.

Clementine moved away from Luke. His arm dropped off her and hit his side. Luke was staring into space, completely motionless almost like he was dead.

"Can I go back to the car, I want to bury AJ." Clementine asked.

Luke swiftly turned his head to Clementine. "…Let's go."

* * *

Clementine stood at the top of the hill next to Luke. "Down there?"

"Yeah."

"I'll race you." Clementine ran down the hill, as Clementine ran she tripped and rolled down the rest of the hill. Luke followed the best he could without tripping himself.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Clementine said as she brushed the grass of her jeans.

Clementine slowly walked over to the tree where the car crashed into. Both Luke and Clem investigated the car but AJ was nowhere to be seen. He wasn't even on the land surrounding the tree.

"Where is he?" Clementine said.

"I… he has to be here."

"Maybe he… turned."

"He's a baby, he ain't gonna get far. He can't even crawl."

"Someone took him?"

"The only person I saw was Tristan..."

"The guy you chased off?"

"Yes…"

"Maybe he did something with AJ."

"Shit. I don't know. Let's just get back to the house, it's been one helluva day."

Clementine looked at the car with those sad eyes. "Okay…" She walked away from it reluctantly.

'**Today, shouldn't have happened. This journey has only ended in regret, it was unwise. The worst part is that it's all my fault. Family is all I care about but mine is slipping away.'**

"Luke?" Clementine asked from the shadows.

"Yeah?" Luke closed the notebook softly.

"Do you think AJ is alive?"

With a firm look into the shadows, Luke answered confidently. "No."

Clementine sighed, she walked towards her door with her head hung low.

"My finger hurts, I ain't got a clue what I've done to it."

Clementine looked up from the ground, she waited for Luke to realise what happened.

Luke glanced down at his filthy, blood covered left hand. "…I, I don't have a finger."

"Everything will be okay. The pain won't last." Clementine entered her bedroom, on a sad note.

The sun was now setting on the horizon, Clementine was settling into bed whereas Luke was lying on the sofa flicking through his notebook.

* * *

Luke awoke from his rest, the sofa had given him a bad back and there was a crow pecking at his shoe. "Ahh, get off. Go on get off." Luke said as he was waving his arms around. The crow squawked at Luke before it flew off out of the front door.

Luke sat up, rubbed his eyes and studied why the door was open. A trail of blood lead out the door down the hill to the car. Luke ran over to the bedroom. Opening the door with precaution, he saw Clementine was peacefully asleep.

"Oh, thank god." Luke gently closed the door and cautiously followed the blood. At the top of the hill Luke looked down at the car. Two people were standing searching through it. Only then did Luke realise the strangers had taken their backpacks. Luke ran over to the cover of the trees behind the house. After he made it to the bottom he hid behind a tree, he examined the strangers, one was armed with a bow and arrows and a dagger, and the other had a pistol and a wounded arm. He drew out his machete and approached the two. "Those backpacks belong to me and my friend."

The man with the pistol turned towards Luke and aimed his gun at him. "We know, but you left them at the front door for anyone to take."

The other stranger was a women. She pulled out her dagger and stabbed her friend in the heart. She put the dagger back in her sheath. The women was wearing her sheath around her waist, and a bow and arrows over her chest. She had leather pants tucked into boots that went up to her calves, she was wearing a jacket that went down to her ribs, with a jumper underneath it. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail it was red with brown roots coming through. Her face was round and cute, her nose small and her eyes were big and green.

"It's been too long Luke. Here." The women spoke with an English accent, she pulled the backpack off the man and threw it over to Luke.

"W…Who are you?"

"Oh, Luke. You were always bad at faces. I'm Julia."

"What!?"

"Don't act so surprised. I see you have been to my house."

Luke blinked twice, shook his head slowly and spoke. "Why did you kill him?"

She looked down at the man. "He caused me a lot of pain, he raped me a few times, I would have killed him sooner but he was useful for a time." Julia looked up at Luke "You got your coat back." She said happily.

"Julia… how many people have you killed?" Luke looked down sadly at the man. He wished that she didn't have to kill him, even if the guy deserved it; he didn't want her to deal with that guilt. Who would? That was the limit for Luke, no killing. However he would rather have that guilt than for Julia to be burdened with it. After all, the guilt is what consumes you.

"Two… this guy and a woman who was trying to kill me." Julia admitted.

"I thought you might've died."

"You saw the cross and the note. I got bitten by a dog. I thought it would make me turn but it didn't."

Those words struck Luke, his stomach felt like someone had just kicked him.

"Still, you didn't have to kill this man."

"No, maybe not, but it felt good."

The Julia Luke had got to know over ten years ago was lost and was too far gone to be found. She looked at Luke from top to bottom, several times.

"Your finger!"

"Yeah, I lost it yesterday. I got bit… and almost died."

Julia walked over to Luke, hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. They began to walk up the hill.

"This backpack is really heavy, what do you have in here."

"Uh. Twenty seven tins, some medicine, a toy dog and a video camera."

"My video camera?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Memories, we had a New Year's video on it; I wanted to watch it on New Year's Eve."

"Ah, Okay. What's in that one then?"

"Some more medicine, ammo and… baby formula."

"You have a baby?"

"Well not anymore, he's… he's… dead."

"I'm so sorry. Was he yours?"

"No, oh God no."

"Whose was it?"

"Just… a friend, they're dead now."

"Oh… right."

Clementine was sitting on the sofa twirling the bracelet around her wrist and swinging her legs nervously, the door slammed open as Luke walked in.

"You're back!" Clementine said excitedly as she jumped up from the sofa.

"Yes and I brought a friend."

Julia stepped forward. "Hi, I'm Julia. Luke and I are old friends."

"Hello. I'm Clementine." She thought for a moment "Luke locked me in shed once." Clementine giggled.

"Really?" Luke said.

Clementine nodded.

"Oh, Why?"

"She was bitten by a dog, it was to keep everyone safe. We thought it was a lurker bite."

"I got bitten by a dog." Julia pulled her jacket sleeve up, the scar wasn't deep; it had a clean stitch and was faded but was still visible. "I thought a dog would turn me but it didn't."

Clementine pulled up her coat sleeve, the bandage was grungy, she pulled it up slowly causing her a little pain and revealed the unseen wound.

Luke frowned at the sight of the wound, the guilt was taking over, his emotional bottle was about to explode.

The scar was partly healed with the stitches sticking out in places, although Carlos was a doctor his suturing skills were just as bad as Clementine's.

"The dog took a chunk out of you!" Julia exclaimed.

Luke clenched his fist, he turned around towards the door and angrily walk out of the house.

"Luke? What's wrong?" Clementine asked. She pulled down the bandage, her sleeve and then caught up with Luke.

Luke continued to walk away to one of the trees behind the house, he hit it twice and pressed his head against it.

Clementine and Julia ran over to Luke, Clementine put her hand on his left shoulder while Julia was hugging him on the other side. Luke – who was close to tears – looked at both Clementine and Julia.

"Are you okay?" Said a concerned Clementine.

"Yeah, yeah… I'm fine."

Julia gave Luke a firm look_. _"The truth."

Luke glanced at Julia, looked at Clementine and then stared at the tree. "No, I'm not fine… Okay?"

"What's the matter?" Clementine asked with a gently tone.

"The… I… Uh… I feel guilty. For not believin' you, for running away, for causing people to die."

"Are you really to blame?" Julia said, taking her arms away from Luke and folding them.

"Yes…" Luke turned away from the tree, he slowly went back to the house like nothing had happened.

"Luke, it wasn't your fault." Clementine shouted at him as he walked away.

Those words echoed in his brain_. In the past I was told gettin' those 10 people killed wasn't my fault but I knew, Carver knew and Tristan knew it was all my fault. One day back when times were easier, Tristan, Carver and I took 10 men out on a hunting trip. I got split up from everyone, bandits surrounded them, I had a chance to save them but instead I sprinted in the other direction, too scared to fight, too scared to defend. Carver and Tristan were the only ones that survived, no surprise there but Tristan bullied the truth out of me, causing Carver to turn on me in a blink of an eye. _

"I haven't seen Luke act like that before." Julia said to Clementine.

"I've never seen him act that way either." Clementine responded.

Luke was contemplating life on the sofa, raising his arm up and making it drop on his leg several times.

"He'll be okay." Clementine said as she walked into the house with Julia.

"I'll be fine." Luke replied.

"In fact, I have seen you like this." Julia realised. "When one of your friends died, you were acting in the same way!"

"…it was all my fault."

"What happened?" Clementine questioned.

"His friend was murdered." Julia explained.

"This guy wanted to take our wallets, I threatened to call the police the guy got angry, pulled out a gun and killed my friend. He pointed the gun at me but someone hit him on the head with a pipe." Luke closed his eyes. "My friend was alive for a while but…he died before an ambulance got there."

"It was never your fault though."

Luke looked up at Julia. "But if I was careful he might still be alive."

"Maybe."

Clementine stood there silent. "You've lost a lot of people." She finally said.

"Everyone has."

"Not just now… before."

"Huh." Luke got up from the sofa and walked towards the backpacks. "We gotta get movin', the herd can't be too far away." He said as he swung the backpack on.

"We're always moving." Clementine said as she put her backpack on.

"It's the only way."

"It is better this way, I've only stayed in shelter a few times. I find it easier to keep going. You never know what is coming." Julia said logically.

"Hmph. I guess it is for the best." Clementine said.

Luke pulled out a different map, one that had the east coast on it. "Which state?"

Julia glanced at the map. "How about North Carolina?"

"We've been there."

"All the way to the coast?"

"No."

"Well that's where I was heading, to the coast. I've heard there's boats there."

Clementine backed away from Julia. "No! No boats…"

"You okay Clem?"

"In my old group, we had a plan to get a boat. It didn't work out."

Julia reassured Clementine. "These aren't any boats, they are run by the military. If we make it there in time. That's out freedom."

"How long have we got?"

"About a week, I saw a note saying it leaves on the 2nd of January."

"You've been keeping track of the days?"

"You know me, I couldn't go anywhere without knowing the time and date."

"Well, we can make it. Let's go."


	4. Chapter 4: Lost Hope

The three walked for miles, for what seemed like hours, was in fact days.

They had run into several fights with lurkers. Clementine always kicking them down and stabbing them in the head. While Luke would slice their head in half or cut it off. Julia would use her bow and arrows shooting them in the middle of the forehead and occasionally stabbing them with her dagger. Once they had made it out of one situation they were stuck in another. 3 days later they were in a dense, dark but warm wood.

The mood of the three was light and playful.

Julia spoke out. "We are family!"

"Get up everybody and sing!" Luke continued.

"We are family!" Clementine said.

"I got all my sisters with me!" Julia replied. "Sorry Luke."

The trio laughed, they kept singing and dancing with each other. Until Clementine noticed something. She tugged on Luke's sleeve and pointed to something amongst the trees.

"What is…?" Luke's eyes widened, he couldn't say another word.

"What's wrong with you two?" Julia said.

"It's…"

"The cabin." Clementine continued.

Luke opened the front door slightly. It was exactly how they left it, the dirty dishes were still piled high with files surrounding them it was like no time had passed at all.

"I can't believe we're back here." Clementine said.

"Everyone who was here is, dead. This cabin was our home for a time. We were here for weeks maybe a month. When you came along I thought it would finally be like a family…"

Clementine smiled up at Luke. "We're still alive."

"Hm. We're all that's left." Luke sighed deeply. "Come on. We've got to go."

Julia still stood at the door entrance. She kept staring at the ground, desperately trying to imagine what it was once like in the cabin.

The following day, the three were sitting around a campfire. Luke had the video camera tightly in his hands, watching what New Year's Eve was like eleven years ago.

"That's you?" Clementine asked. "You look different."

"Different good? Or different bad?" Luke questioned.

"Both."

"What?"

Clementine and Julia sniggered. "Haha." Luke said sarcastically.

"Look fireworks!" Clementine had her eyes glued to the tiny screen.

"How long?" Luke asked.

Julia pulled up her sleeve to look at her watch. "Twenty seconds… Fifteen seconds… Ten seconds."

All three joined in on the countdown. "9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0."

"Happy New Year." Everyone said at once.

Julia's smile then turned serious "That was fun while it lasted. How far until we get to the coast?"

Luke gave the camera to Clementine and pulled out the map. "I think we're here." Luke said as he placed his finger on one of the lines. He slowly moved it across the map. "Maybe another 50 miles."

"We will never make it in time." Julia said.

"We can do it." Clementine stood up. "We have to go."

"She's right! We gotta go now!"

Julia sighed. "Fine, fine. We go now and we are roamer bait. You know that!"

"Do you wanna get out of this alive? Everything we lost, it brought us here. We can get out of this hell. Don't you want that?" Luke questioned.

"Of course I do! But it will be pitch black out there, we will die before we have a chance!"

"Guys! We have to go!" Clementine stressed.

"I can't do-"Julia's speech was cut off, she fell to the ground, blood pouring out of her mouth into the mud. "NO!" Luke shouted.

Clementine hid behind Luke, he put his arm behind him to reassure her. They did a full loop but no one could be seen. Suddenly a shadow moved, someone stepped forward, kicking Julia's body as they did.

The stranger laughed. "Kill me before I say a word?"

"Tristan!" Luke pulled out his gun. "I don't wanna do this."

"Your humanity always failed you."

The trees shook in the distance, from a bird's eye view, it looked like they were sleeping, the three of them. Clementine cuddling into Luke's body while Julia was lying next to the campfire. Tristan's colourless body was lying in the shadows alone, his young face no longer showed innocence.

At ground level the truth was clear to see. Julia had died from a stab wound in the back of her chest and a bullet wound in her head. Tristan had died from a bullet wound to the head. Luke and Clementine were a different story. Clementine's wrist had been sliced and Luke, he wasn't wounded at all.

"It's all my fucking fault again. Again…!" Luke said quietly, he pinched the bridge of his nose, shook his head and turned towards Clementine.

"It's not your fault." Clementine said. "It all happened too fast."

Luke moved his head towards the sky. "He slit your wrist to provoke me into shooting him… And I did. I killed a man. I just can't believe it. My humanity…"

"Luke… this isn't your fault. He was crazy, you stopped him from killing us."

Luke stood up and stamped out the fire. He threw some mud and leaves onto Julia. "Not really a burial."

"There's never time for burials." Clementine said with a sad tone.

"Come on let's go." Luke held out his hand and pulled Clementine up from the ground. "How's your wrist?"

"Its fine, it doesn't hurt." Clementine said, holding her wrist tightly.

"50 miles. We can do this." Luke tried to be cheerful but he was beginning to break inside.

* * *

Purple, yellow and blue dominated the sky. The sun couldn't even be seen rising but it was evidently dawn. Crows flew overhead and the field Luke and Clementine were walking in was empty even though surrounding it was the suburbs.

"I'm sorry… about Julia." Clementine stated.

"Don't… I should've killed Tristan back at the bungalow."

"He's dead now. He can't bother us anymore."

Luke's hand folded into a fist. "Shut up! Just… shut the fuck up."

"Luke! You're scaring me."

Luke glanced down at his fist and then at Clementine. "Shit. Shit, I'm sorry. It's hard to think about it y'know."

"Are you okay?"

"No… I don't feel like myself anymore…"

Clementine looked at Luke sympathetically, her eyes full of sadness and fear. "A friend once told me, 'Bad things happen to everyone and it's hard to keep being yourself after they do'."

"Was it Lee?"

"Yes."

"Smart guy."

"Don't try and be yourself. You're broken."

"Nothin' happened to me."

"You lost everyone, everything."

"I didn't!"

"We can talk about it if you want."

"No, we have to keep going."

Although Clementine knew Luke was pretending to be strong, he kept going, he kept moving. Hoping that she wouldn't notice.

A few hours after Luke's outburst; the two approached a large rock on the coastline.

"There's the boat." Luke said.

Two guards stood in front of it, holding AK-47's.

"Come on let's go." Clementine jumped up from the rock, only to be stopped by Luke grabbing her arm and pulling her back down.

"We gotta be smart about this. Who knows what they'll do. For all we know they could shoot us as soon as they see us."

"What's the plan?"

"I'll go up to those guards and if it's clear, you can come out."

"Okay."

Luke moved up from the rock, the guards aimed their guns towards Luke, he put his hands up.

"Who are you? What do you want?" One guard shouted.

"I'm Luke. I heard that the military is rescuing people."

"Then you've been misinformed, this is for government officials only."

"Why come now? It's been two years!" Luke questioned.

"That's none of your business, leave now or we shoot you!"

"Okay, okay." Luke backed away, slowly putting his hands down.

The other guard shouted at Luke "Wait!" The guard threw his gun over to Luke.

"What are you doing? He'll kill us." The first guard said.

"He's clearly come along way. And he has a child with him." The guard said.

Luke picked up the gun. "Thank you." He went back to the rock. "Come on Clem."

The guards watched as Clementine and Luke walked away from the coastline and disappeared in the hills.

"Why turn them away. They could've been perfect" The second guard said.

"They don't need us. They'll survive on their own." The first guard said.

"Are you sure?"

"The Captain said to turn away anyone with more than two weapons. They'll make it."

"Do you think that was the girl, your girlfriend was talking about?"

"I think so."

* * *

**One week later**

* * *

Clementine and Luke were walking along a stone path next to a rural road and a river, believing that someone would pass them. The sky was filled with dark grey clouds, the rain was cold, the moon was hidden and a big gust of wind pushed Clementine onto the road.

"Looks like the storms gettin' worse." Luke said staring up at the sky.

Clementine gained some balance, noticing her bracelet had come off her wrist she picked it up from the road and slid it back on. "This was Julia's wasn't it?" Clementine said as she twirled the bracelet around her wrist.

"Yeah."

"Julia said the military came back for survivors. Why did we get turned away?"

"I got the impression that they were hidin' something. Most government officials died or were murdered on the first day, it was on the news."

"Then we should go back!"

"Clem, the boats gone. It left last week."

"What should we do?"

"I don't know anymore, camps are dangerous, people are reckless and food is running low."

"How many cans?"

"Thirteen. Thirteen days of food."

"We… we…"

"What? We what?"

"We still have the baby formula. If we ever needed it."

"That won't help us. -I'm sorry, I know you were close to AJ."

"He was never going to make it, this world isn't fit for babies."

"No, but one day it needs to be."

The two followed the road for as long as they could, with their vision becoming low as the rain worsened they needed find shelter before something catastrophic happened. Only two minutes had passed, the heavy rainfall had been building up so much it reached Luke's ankles.

"Why is it raining so much?" Clementine said.

"I don't know."

The water in the river had almost reached the top of the river bank. With nowhere else to go Luke turned to the trees.

"Clementine, that river is gonna burst. We need to climb the trees."

"Give me a boost."

Luke lifted Clementine up, she grabbed a branch and climbed up. "I hate trees."

"I thought you just hated treehouses."

"I hate them both."

Luke jumped up to the branch, he climbed up and sat on a bigger branch next to Clementine.

"You're good at that." Clementine said.

"Before I jumped rooftops I used to climb up trees to practice."

"It still sounds stupid."

"Yeah. I broke a couple of bones."

Clementine stared at the river. "Why are we up here?"

"It's going to flood."

"What's that?"

"Oh, uh. It's when lots of water collects in one place and moves across an area, it can kill you as well."

The rain came down a lot heavier than before, the river couldn't hold anymore and it burst. Water flooded everywhere, it hit the tree with such a force that the whole tree shook, Luke dropped the AK-47 and it was taken away by the rushing water.

"Clem? You okay?"

"Yes."

"Good. Alright, we'll have to stay up here until the water dies down."

The winds began to pick up, more pressure was put on the tree making the branch Clementine was sitting on snap off. She clung to the tree trunk, her backpack slipped off her shoulders and also fell into the water, it was carried away and in an instant it was gone. Luke reached out for her hand, he pulled her up next to him making his branch shake.

"We should probably get down before one of us falls." Luke said with an unsure tone.

Luke climbed down the branches like a ladder, he threw himself off the last branch and planted his feet into the ground with his arms out.

"Jump!"

"You'll catch me?"

"Probably. Now jump!"

Clementine allowed herself to fall off the branch, she closed her eyes expecting to fall in the rushing water. When she opened them, she was lying in Luke's arms.

"I told you, I'd catch you."

"You said probably."

"Hm, same thing." Luke looked down at the water hitting his hip. "I'll carry you, the water will be up to your neck if I put you down."

"Okay." Clementine said happily.

Luke trudged through the water. As time went on the water showed no signs of stopping, the rain kept falling and the flood kept going.

"Where are we going?" Clementine asked.

"I don't know."

"Don't we need a plan?"

"Nope."

"What if we end up in a circled state?"

"Then we end up there."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Luke snapped at Clementine. "I'm fine!"

* * *

After about an hour, the water started to lower slightly. Clementine drifted off in Luke's arms while Luke was getting battered in the face by raindrops and hit in the legs by the flood. In the distance Luke saw some lights, they resembled headlights and before he knew it a car pulled up next to him.

A voice was heard as the passenger door opened. "Jump in!"

Luke got in the car without saying a word, as soon as he did the car drove away slamming the door shut in the process. The car was a 4x4 Range Rover and it had the wheel on the right side instead of the left.

"My names Oscar." The man took one hand off the wheel to shake Luke's hand. He had big arms and had tattoos all over his left hand. He had blonde hair and blue eyes. His face was like it had been cut out with each feature being perfectly shaped and he was wearing a long coat.

Luke shook his hand awkwardly. "I'm Luke. Why did you help us?"

Oscar laughed. "I saw you walking in the water with your child and thought you might need a ride."

"She's not my child…"

"…Easy mistake."

"Yeah… Anyways thank you, I didn't think anyone would be out here."

"You were out here." Oscar laughed again. "I was heading up to a town, it's been a while since I've been with people. Learnt I couldn't trust 'em."

"Big town?"

"Big enough for it to have a hospital."

"So, a city?"

"No, not quite. It's a town. I used to live there, it's a town."

"Hm. Why are you going there?"

"I saw some writing that said a helicopter is going to be staying at the rooftop for a while. You wouldn't happen to know the date, would you?"

"It's the 9th of January 2006."

"So we have." Oscar started to move his fingers to count up the days. "We have 2 days"

"Can we get there?"

"Yes, the town is only about 15 minutes away."

As they kept driving the water lowered and eventually there was no more floodwater to be seen.

Clementine opened her eyes and began to panic. "Where are we? Who are you!?"

"Clem, it's okay. We're in a car this man is called Oscar, he's a part of our group now."

"Nice to meet you… Clem?"

"Clementine but everyone calls me Clem."

"Clementine it is then." Silence fell in the car as Oscar thought to himself. "Are you guys up to jumping rooftops when we get to the town?"

"I can jump rooftops." Luke said without hesitation.

"What about you Clementine?"

"It sounds stupid."

"It's not when the hospital will be packed full of zombies."

"Zombies? Is that what you call them?" Luke said.

"Yes, when a corpse is revived by witchcraft. It was in some religion my cousin's knew about, they started calling them that and I did too."

"I know what it means. Just a strange thing to call them."

"Clementine. We have to jump rooftops to get close to the hospital. Do you think you can do it?"

"I can try."

"Now we got ourselves a plan, we just need to be careful." Oscar said as he turned a corner revealing the town.

It was bigger than expected, almost like a city but just small enough for it to be still classed as a town. The buildings were high and there wasn't a single house in sight, all of the buildings were apartments or office blocks. At the end of the road was the hospital. Oscar stopped the car, the noise from the engine had already attracted some attention, with lurkers coming out of every alleyway.

"Follow me." Oscar jumped out the car and ran over to one of the buildings. He opened the door, rushed Clementine and Luke in, closed the door and blocked it with an end table.

"Seems like you've done that before." Luke said.

"I have. More times than you can imagine."

Clementine stood still silent holding her knife closely by her side. "There's gonna be more."

"There certainly is Clementine believe me, there is."

The newly formed trio crept up flight after flight of stairs, fighting off a couple of lurkers as they went. Oscar burst through the door on rooftop. Both Luke and Oscar bent to their knees to catch their breath, as Clementine approached the roof edge.

"The gap is too big to jump." Clementine said.

Luke walked up beside her, looking down at the gap he turned to her and laughed. "I've jumped bigger, you just need a good running start and you'll be fine." Luke took off his backpack and threw it to the other side.

"Don't worry, this is the easiest jump. When I was a teen this was the training jump."

"Everything will be fine Clem. You ready to jump, Oscar?"

"I was born ready." Oscar winked at Luke, like his reference was the best thing he ever said. From the other side of the building he began to run and jumped just before a line on the building, almost like he was doing the long jump. He landed perfectly on the next roof.

"Clem? You wanna go next?"

"Do I have to?"

"Yes. It's the only way."

Clementine got ready at the other side.

"Remember. Don't look down."

Clementine smiled at Luke, she started to run and jumped at the same point where Oscar jumped. She soared through the air and landed on both feet on the other rooftop. Oscar gave a round of applause.

"Well done, Clementine. That was amazing!"

Luke went to the other side of the building, as he was getting ready to jump, some violent flashbacks occurred.

"_If you miss it by an inch, you fall and die."_

"_I won't miss, I've been doing this since I was 8."_

"_Luke, you may be good but you've fallen before."_

"_Naw. I'll make it."_

Luke shook his head and got ready to go again.

_I jumped one of the biggest gaps I had ever jumped. I missed just by an inch, I clung onto the edge of the building for as long as I could but fell, to what should have been my death but instead was saved by a window ledge. With a few cracked ribs I was fine but if I jumped and missed here, I would die or survive long enough to get eaten alive._

He began to run, shaking his head several times, he jumped just before the line. All of Luke's worrying was for nothing, he landed on the next building like he had just jumped over a fence.

"What took you so long?" Clementine asked.

"I was making sure we hadn't left anything behind."

"Well we have 3 more buildings to jump before we are close enough to the hospital." Oscar said staring off into the distance.

Luke studied the next few jumps. "The last building is smaller than the hospital. We can't jump that!"

"Oh, we can. You'll see."

The trio jumped the next 3 buildings with little problems other than the rain that was blocking some of their view. Luke glanced up at the tall hospital. "How are we gonna jump this?"

"Watch and learn."

Oscar jumped from the building and clung onto the stairs on the side of the hospital, he climbed over the bars and smiled over at Clementine and Luke.

"Clem, this jump is gonna be hard. You sure you're up to it."

"No, I won't make it."

"Hey! Oscar!" Luke waved his arms over to Oscar.

"Yeah?"

"Clem and I are gonna go the long way instead of jumping. Will you wait for us?"

"I'll be right here!"

"Okay Clem, let's go."

The duo cautiously walked down the many flights of stairs, they held their weapons close to them in case any lurkers jumped out at them. Nothing was roaming, lurking or walking in the shadows. Once Clementine and Luke made it to the ground floor the commotion they had caused over an hour ago had settled down. The lurkers had crawled back into their alleyways. Luke gradually opened the door, he peered out into the street. To his surprise the street was completely clear.

Luke turned around and placed his hand on Clem's shoulders. "We are going to walk over to the stairs beside the hospital slowly, make no noise." He whispered.

"Okay but if anything happens we run?"

"Yeah. Don't try to fight. There'll be too many."

They both crept out of the apartment. They got closer and closer to the stairs. Luke gently placed his foot on the first step, the stairs started to shake violently, he stepped off and pushed Clementine back. Luke threw himself away from the stairs, after landing on his stomach he turned around to watch the metal stairs collapse to the ground.

"…I guess we have to go though, the hospital." Luke said as he picked himself up from the ground.

"There's always a problem." Clementine jumped up and walked towards the corner, she leaned against the wall and peered around it. "I can't see any lurk- Walkers."

"Heh. You nearly called them lurkers."

"It's your fault!"

"I know." Luke said as he began to laugh, he unexpectedly turned serious and snuck around the corner.

"It's clear. Come on!"

The two walked in the hospital liked they owned the place, Luke quickly moved his eyes across the hallway. In front of him was a reception desk, in the seat was some skeletal remains holding the phone on top of the desk. The walls were covered in death notes and meet up spots, goodbyes and posters. Some of the walls had 'help' written across them all of which were written in blood. The hallway was littered with black body bags, some were moving while others lay still. Blood covered the walls and floor, therefore it brought back the good old smell of dead decaying bodies, otherwise known as lurkers or walkers or roamers or biters or even zombies.

Luke read one of the signs on the wall 'Remember to wash your hands to prevent spreading infection. Avoid all contact with the dead.' "If only."

"Luke, we should try and find a way to the roof."

"Oh yeah. Right, right." Luke surveyed his surrounds, looking up at the signs he spotted an arrow pointing to stairs further down the corridor. "Follow me."

The two jogged over to the stairs, the blood didn't stop. It was splattered up the walls and bones were scattered all over the floor, the moaning of the dead sent shivers up the duo's spines, they might have encountered lurkers many times before but this new setting made the threat seem new. The two moved towards the stairs calmly.

"Let's hope they don't fall down." Clementine said looking up at Luke.

Luke stood staring at the shadows for a moment, he then grabbed Clementine and ran over to the corner, dragging Clementine along as he did. "I think I saw someone." He whispered.

Clementine used the same technique that she used outside, she leaned against the wall and peered around the corner. "It's Oscar." She whispered back. "Why is he hiding in the sha-"

Clementine was cut off by a sudden gun shot that hit just where her head had been. Luke grabbed Clementine and pushed her into a room at the other side of the corridor, he blocked the door with a chair and collapsed by it.

"Why would he shoot at us?" Clementine said as she sat on the floor.

"I knew something was wrong, but Oscar? I thought we could trust him."

"Shh." Clementine said as footsteps were heard outside of the door. They stopped for a moment. Luke looked at Clementine anxiously, he then raised his finger to his mouth to simulate 'be quiet'.

The footsteps then continued down the hallway, getting quieter and quieter with every step.

Luke stood up from the floor and walked over to the medicine cabinets. One of them still had its lock on, he pulled out his machete and busted the lock.

"Do you know what any of this stuff is?" Clementine asked but still whispered.

"No, I wish Bonnie was here, she'd know."

"Was she a nurse?"

Luke laughed quietly. "No, she was a drug addict but she knew her drugs."

"Oh."

Luke looked at some bottles of pills, most had weird almost made up names although a couple said Paracetamol and Penicillin.

"Are you allergic to Penicillin?"

"No."

"Okay, good. We have pain killers and antibiotics now." Luke said as he stuffed his backpack with the pills.

"Good." Clementine held her right arm nervously. "How are we gonna get out?"

"I don't know. I guess Oscar would be roaming the halls, if he wants to kill us."

"Do you think he's working with someone?"

"Maybe the people with the helicopter?"

"Do you think there is a helicopter?"

"I saw it… They could be testing us."

Luke took the chair away from the door slowly, he opened the door with caution and focused on the entrance to the hospital. Oscar was near the front door, he was standing with his arms folded, almost like he was waiting for Clementine and Luke to sneak out.

"We have to get past Oscar." Luke said.

"We could make a distraction."

"Yeah, yeah. That'll work. We could use… this chair, if we throw it he might follow it."

"Okay." She pulled out her gun while Luke picked up the chair.

"What- Why have you?"

"Just in case he shoots at us."

Luke nodded his head he opened the door and threw the chair towards the stairs. The chair created a loud crack as it broke into millions of little pieces. Oscar turned his head to the place the noise came from, he began to run along the corridor, once he got close to the corner he slowed down.

Luke gently opened the door pressing his left hand on it to make as little noise as possible, in a ducked down position, Luke wrapped his arm over Clementine to make sure she would stay down, they ran down the hallway, their footsteps alerted Oscar, he turned his head and raised up his gun, Clementine looked behind and shot at Oscar. The bullet struck Oscar in the neck, cell by cell it pierced right through it and out of the other side, it hit the wall as Oscar fell to his knees and then to the ground, blood gushing out of his neck, he held it tightly but his efforts were useless, he died regardless. Luke and Clementine stopped running, they stood up from their crouched positions. The whole corridor came alive body bags moving more than they did before, the same could be said for outside the lurkers crawled out of the alleyways and into the main street.

Luke acted fast he lifted Clementine off her feet, he started running out of the hospital, he ran down the street, to the car they had arrived in. Luke got in the right side, moving Clementine onto the left, he started up the engine and did a quick 3-point turn out of the town and back onto the main road.

"…I killed Oscar." Clementine looked up at Luke. "He saved us…It feels wrong, how do you cope?"

"I don't."

"What?"

"I don't cope, I know you've known for a while. I breakdown at night but I bottle it up so I can look after you."

"Should I bottle it up?"

"No you're only young, if you bottle it up, it might make you worse. Talk to me, if you need to."

"…I've killed people before, but this was different. It felt like I killed a good man, who wasn't broken, who wasn't bit but instead all he did was save us, then we kill him to stop him killing us."

"That's life Clem, you either die or live. We chose to live." Luke turned to Clementine. "You only shot him, that's not as bad as… y'know."

"Kenny? He went too far, we both know that but he did it to protect the group."

"Still, that's difference between you and Kenny. He kept going, you stopped when he was dead, when we were safe."

* * *

With a car full of fuel, the two of them could have went anywhere but they chose to go somewhere more encouraging. The mountains were full of promise when the sun rose, it glistened on the snow covered peaks, and a beautiful dawn was in commence. The ski lifts were still frozen in place and the ski lodge still intact. Since the group had been there, the windows had subsequently been smashed and bodies lay around it broken and dead.

Luke pulled out the map he had originally used on the 5 day trek. The water from the lake had crumpled it.

"It feels like 5 minutes ago; when we all sat down for dinner." Luke stared down at the map, his eyes becoming teary.

**Sat with Luke:** "I was glad you sat with us for dinner, it was the last time… we were all together."

**Sat with Kenny:** "I wish you had sat with us instead of Kenny, it was the last time we were all together but I understand Kenny was family to you."

Clementine caught Luke's gaze, noticing he had become teary eyed, she smiled at him, which in turn brought his spirts up.

**Nick's dead: **"I had to kill him… My best friend, I came back from my 'hike' and I saw him like this."

"It was my fault."

"You know what happened?"

"I told Walter he wasn't a good guy, when Nick was getting attacked, he raised up his gun but he didn't shoot. Instead he ran away."

"I told him! I told him telling Walter was a bad idea."

**Alvin's dead: **"I came back from my 'hike' no one else was there. Just dead lurkers, Walter and Alvin. When I saw him, I was surprised. Alvin was a tough guy, it was shocking."

"I had a chance to save him, but I didn't take it."

"It wasn't your fault, it's mine for not being there."

**Both dead: **"I had to kill him… My best friend, I came back from my 'hike' and I saw him like this."

"It was my fault."

"You know what happened?"

"I told Walter he wasn't a good guy, when Nick was getting attacked, he raised up his gun but he didn't shoot. Instead he ran away."

"I told him! I told him telling Walter was a bad idea." Luke continued. "When I saw Alvin, dead. I was surprised. Alvin was a tough guy, it was shocking."

"I had a chance to save him, but I didn't take it."

"It wasn't your fault, it's mine for not being there."

The two walked into the lodge, the lights were off, the tree was broken in half and snow covered the front passage way. On the table where everyone lay down their weapons, there was a familiar pink backpack underneath it. Clementine ran towards it, she picked it up and presented it to Luke. This was a side of Clementine Luke had hardly seen before, she was happier than ever.

"Wow, it's still here." Luke said excitedly.

"I can't believe it. It's been through a lot."

Luke nodded, he proceeded up the stairs, his eyes surveying the room. Clementine walked passed him, she skipped along to the tables and sat on the floor by them.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I want to remember." She whispered. Luke sat down beside her, Clementine rested her head on Luke's shoulder.

"Imagine if Carver hadn't attacked us." Clementine said.

"Everyone would be here."

"Yeah, they would." Clementine got up from her post and investigated the CD player, she picked a CD disk off the floor. Carefully she placed it in, pressed play and to her surprise some upbeat music played instead of the calm concert it had played the last time.

Luke chuckled. "This throws me back. It used to be a big hit, always playing at clubs I went to, with Nick." Luke looked up towards the ceiling. "We would dance all night to this."

"I bet you were a rubbish dancer."

Luke scowled at Clementine. "I ain't no dancer but I've got moves."

"Go on."

Luke awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't think-"

"Dance!"

Luke shook his head, hands and feet. He gave the best dance performance he could, shuffling from side to side with his hands and feet in time to the beat. After the song had finished Luke collapsed on the floor, out of breath but it was all worth it.

"Well done!" Clementine said smiling at Luke.

The CD player kept playing some music, this time the concert came on.

Luke put out his hand. "Care for a dance?" Clementine placed her hand in his, she looked up worried for what he might do. "Stand on my feet."

"What?"

"You're too small. Stand on my feet."

Clementine moved her feet onto Luke's shoes. He then took her other hand and they danced around, just like siblings would. For a whole 3 minutes it felt like the rest of the world didn't exist to them, they kept dancing away. They were brought back to reality when the CD spluttered and skipped several beats, it let out a cloud of smoke and, the music was over.

"Well, nothin' lasts forever." Luke said, letting go of Clementine's hands.

She jumped off his shoes and raised up her hand. Luke hit it gently.

"Hi-Five!" Said an excited Clementine.

"Yeah, hm. We could hold out here for the rest of the winter."

"We should keep going, it's not safe here."

"Really?"

Clementine looked up at Luke with those persuasive eyes, the eyes that could make a puppy feel guilty.

"Fine. There's no need for a guilt trip. We'll leave."

The two left the lodge, looking back on it as they exited. "We could've had something here." Luke said.

The door slammed shut, all fell silent, all the guilt, all the upset, all the death. That is what the lodge held, it was too much. Moving on? That was their only option. The journey was far from over.


	5. Chapter 5: Times Change

**Over a year later**

* * *

'**So much has happened between then and now, it ain't getting easier. One can of food a day soon turned to one can a week and then one can a month. After that, well. Let's just say things got a little out of hand. And now where nowhere. Still in the same states just walking around. I guess I've gotta stay strong, for Clem.'**

"I'm sorry about your coat, I can't believe I dropped it into the fire."

"I keep tellin' you its fine, winter is over. I don't need it."

"What're we doing again?"

"I'm looking for some blackberries."

"You said it yourself, they normally don't ripen until the summer. It's only March."

"Hm. We need food Clem. We've been rationing our food since last year. Those thirteen cans only lasted us until winter then we had to live off-"

"Yeah. Those horrible seeds you found. They were awful."

"But we've ran out of food. We can't last much longer like this. We ain't gonna make it if we don't find something."

Luke and Clementine were seriously malnourished; Clementine's arms were like sticks. Luke's face had become a lot thinner and his jumper was beginning to hang off him. Food had become so distant to the two of them; they counted the days since their last meal (a meal being an animal or a can of food) although they ate during that time, things like berries, fruit and they even managed to get through eating bugs. That was to stay alive while they were low on food and to somewhat regain energy from the lack of sleep. However after weeks of going on like that, they quickly became used to it; their bodies could cope better. They were adapting to the changing environment. Of course that odd rabbit or raccoon or another mammal like that wasn't always enough but it had to do. Beggars can't be choosers, if they were, ahh, they would be dead.

Others like them had the same trouble, with food out of date in cans and other preserved food becoming inedible, the only food left would be fruit, vegetables and animals (even if it was only some bug). Unfortunately, the animals were getting harder to find; the fruit and vegetables were only in season at certain times of the year and the vegetables could only be found on farms which were dying out without the humans. The lack of food wasn't good for them, they had to come up with a plan C or was it plan H at this point? Whatever plan they were up to – whether it was H or even U – they had to come up with a strategy in order to survive.

He began cutting the bushes back with his machete, each leaf that was slashed was like each part of Luke slowly being ripped apart.

"Luke, you need to calm down. You're just getting frustrated. Let's go."

"Well, no. No! You ain't persuading me again. You know what happened the last time you did that."

"We were never gonna last at the ski lodge."

"You don't know that. Now we're god knows where, with nothing to tell us where we are, because we're in the middle of nowhere!"

"Luke calm down! Just shut the fuck up."

"Fine! I'm gonna go take a walk."

"Come back when you're ready to be more like a man and less like a coward!"

"Whatever!"

Luke strolled off threw the forest, not knowing where he was going or why he had an argument with Clem. But he regretted it because what was to come of it, was scarier than any lurker or human could be.

Clementine walked in the opposite direction, fed up with Luke. He had been through a lot that was for sure but what was that compared to what Clem had lost? It was nothing, just the beginning to a downward spiral to insanity.

"She always has to test me. Blaming me. I feel less like her friend and more like her enemy."

"Ugh. Why does he have to be such a jerk? He's my friend not my father or brother. He doesn't tell me what to do or guide me on my decisions."

Wandering through the woods with many dangers and living 'nightmares' many warnings had stated the animals that lived in the fierce forest. But Clementine and Luke ignored such warnings.

There it was right in front of Luke. A raccoon. How sad that poor Luke had to face it's small paws and sharp menacing teeth. He drew out his blade and stepped back from the bold raccoon. Surprisingly Luke was to some extent scared of racoons.

Clementine stood in the distance watching Luke fight the raccoon. She did nothing but laugh.

Luke slashed the raccoon's throat, making it stagger back. Luke stroked it as it died, peacefully.

"I guess you're a coward, Luke."

"I guess you're a moody bitch then."

"You're scared of racoons?"

"Yeah, I am."

"You're not scared of lurkers but you're scared of raccoons?"

"Yup. You didn't correct yourself this time, you're actually calling them lurkers now?"

"It's time to let go."

"Letting go, huh? That's the hardest thing to do in this world. But I guess you're stronger than me, so. Well done."

"Yeah, I'm stronger and not a coward because I'm not the one who's scared of raccoons."

"Hey! Everyone has their fears."

"I don't… Come on then. We'll eat the raccoon."

"Okay, bossy."

"Shut up, Luke!"

"Okay…" Luke picked up the raccoon as if it was a baby and took it back to a camp Clementine and Luke had set up the previous night.

As Luke was setting up the campfire, Clementine scouted out the camp. It was a bare area with nothing but trees and dead plants.

"I feel like someone's watching us."

"Clem, stop being so paranoid. There's nothing there."

"Trust me this time."

"Look- Ah!"

An arrow flew past Luke's head. He immediately jumped up, both Clementine and Luke pulled out their guns and stood back to back, circling the area.

"There! In the distance!"

Luke and Clementine stood side by side aiming their guns at the running shadow. It disappeared into the trees. Unclear of what just happened, Clementine crouched down, aiming her gun into the distance, with one eye squinted shut, she braced herself.

"Good thinking." Luke circled the area once more. "I can't see nothin'."

"No, there's nothing."

"Was it, our imagination?"

"No, it couldn't be." Clementine looked up at the trees, she aimed her gun up and shot. Suddenly a body fell from the tree, screaming as it hit the ground with such a force blood splattered on Luke as well as Clementine.

"Got him!"

"Hah, you certainly did." Luke shook his head slowly, closing his eyes as he did. Had he really changed that much that he applauded killing someone?

Clementine went over to check the body. It was covered in third degree burns, in their hand was a crossbow, broken and ruined. She searched through the pockets, a piece of paper was crumpled up in one of them. It was a picture, a picture of a family. All happy and joyful.

"What did you find?"

"He had a family once. We all did. It just feels so… wrong."

"It's been three years Clem. I gotta a feeling, it's always gonna be _wrong. _But we have to kill to survive, I learnt that one the hard way."

"It gets harder and harder to kill people. The guilt just keeps piling on."

"And it's the guilt of surviving, that people may have died because you didn't do somethin'."

Clementine closed her eyes tightly, thinking back on everything she had done wrong, all of her guilt was unbearable. All of Luke's guilt was enough to drive someone to insanity but something made them able to keep going, and to keep going strong. To not give up hope is hard, it's so easy to let it slip away and once it's gone. There's no getting it back.

"We… we should've killed ourselves, when we had the perfect opportunity. We were on that roof for so long, sitting there when we ate that last can of soup. We had agreed we wouldn't jump but now, I wish we had."

"Listen, Clem. We'll be okay. It's gonna get harder but we have each other."

"We will never! Ever! Find somewhere safe, it's too late for us now. We've already lost. Our humanity is gone."

"Don't say that! We still have humanity, even if it's hanging on by a thread but you ain't giving up on up that. Not yet! Clem, you've gotta stay strong, don't let the guilt take over!"

"We got everyone killed. We should just end it."

"Where did you go? You ain't there, is it that picture? Don't let that get to you. Block it off. Keep living. Do it for me, do it for Kenny, and do it for Christa and Lee!"

Clementine wiped away the tears, she stood up strong, determined.

"You good?"

"Yes, I'm good. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Let's get this raccoon cooking."

Luke sat with the raccoon in his hand, he sliced it down the middle, opening it up. He peeled back the skin, revealing its pale flesh. After that he picked off the meat; he threw it into a frying pan that was lying on top of the fire.

"How long until we die." Clementine said bluntly.

"What?" Luke said as he sat down by the fire next to Clem.

"Seriously, how long do you think we'll live for?"

"Another… year, maybe two. I'd imagine, food would be running low at that point. I'd have to teach you how to hunt. If we're gonna survive."

"Survive… to do what?"

"To find other people and make sure this species doesn't die out… maybe one day there'll be cities again, like the old world. With no lurkers."

"Doesn't die out? So people have to have babies, by sex. Right?"

"I'm startin' to think that sex education lesson was a bad idea, but yeah _by sex_."

"And no lurkers. That's impossible."

"It has to be the future."

"Maybe."

Several minutes past of the duo just sitting quietly, they constantly have rows and fights, ever since the Ski Lodge, it could be hormones or it could be their friendship being built on little backstory. The only conversation that arose was that the raccoon was done.

"How is it?" Luke asked.

"A little tough and sticky but it tastes better than those seeds."

"You're never gonna let that go, are you?"

"Nope."

"Huh." Luke sighed. "Where are we going next?"

"What about the abandoned theme park?"

"Nah, it's overrun, I ain't risking that just so you can see if the rides work."

Clementine murmured to herself, which made Luke unsettled.

"Ugh. There has to be somewhere. A camp. Something!"

"You really want to get into that life again? I don't think I could anymore."

"We have to find somewhere. We've been everywhere. All the camps fall. Even Wellington fell."

**Wellington ending: **"I was there for about a week and then it just fell. Riots and murder, I've never seen anything that bad. It was scary, but I made it out."

"It's sad it didn't make it. Everyone was going there. I guess that was part of the problem."

**If you didn't go to Wellington: **"Word got out fast that it fell." Clementine said.

"On nearly every supply house we found, it was even written on a road. Sad that it fell, so many people had made it there."

"Come on. The best thing we can do right now is to get out of this forest."

"Yeah. Okay."

Clementine got up from the ground; she picked up her pink backpack, a shiny silver object fell out. As Clementine and Luke walked away, the object glimmered, it was Julia's bracelet, just another memory lost.

* * *

**The Following Day**

* * *

The sun shone over Luke and Clementine as if it was trying to tell them to not lose hope, that they would find somewhere. Blue dominated the sky, no cloud could be seen for miles, the air felt warm and humid. Perfect for a day of fighting for your life.

Clementine took off her hoodie, she stuffed it into her backpack. They were walking down a highway, empty and deserted, with cars lying upside down with their windows smashed and their contents split out on the road. Lurkers lay on the road, dead.

"We should've found more fuel for that car." Clementine said.

"It didn't get us that far. We just drove around. We've stuck to the same areas for a year, maybe it's time to move west."

"We have no idea what it's like that way."

"Hm. Most of the circled states are west anyway. You're right."

"Like always."

"Yup. Like always."

They both continued to walk forward, not knowing where they were going or why they were going. Nothing changed, every person Clementine has met died or got lost, her hope should be long gone but it was still there, intact when it really shouldn't. Luke on the other hand lost hope for a long time, but when Clementine found him that hope reignited, knowing someone is alive that you once thought was dead, can bring hope back in an instant.

"Was it our fault…?" Luke said. "…Was it our fault all of our friends died?"

"How many times do we have to have this conversation? We couldn't control what happened to them. Pete just lost his footing. Nick got caught out by a lurker. Alvin was no match for Carver. Carlos got shot. Sarah couldn't be saved, it was too late for her. You know Rebecca's death wasn't your fault. And AJ, it wasn't your fault. I should've never blamed you."

"But if I had of went with you guys to the river or if I didn't leave Kenny or if I didn't get caught. It would be different. I made choices, bad choices and they got people, our friends killed. That ones on me, just me."

"Aw, feeling guilty? It's not like you lost your parents when you were nine and knowing it's your fault." Clementine stopped walking and faced Luke, she knew she had started a conversation that would emotionally tear anyone apart.

"Okay, I lost my parents when I was twenty four yeah, I get that but my Mom died to save me, she threw herself into the lurkers after she… After she got bit by my Dad and she, got ripped apart. I just ran but I should've stayed, I should've died with them. I told her! I told her not to kiss him, we had only seen it happen once; she was convinced it wouldn't happen but it did, he turned when she kissed him and got bit on the lip. She was shaken up, holding her lip, there was so much blood. I had to kill him, I had to kill my Dad to stop him from hurting me… A group of lurkers began to approach us, I guess my Mom screaming attracted them. She stood up, said sorry and threw herself in…" Luke began to cry softly, tears streamed down his face delicately, quite the contrast to the subject. Clementine watched as he cried, she didn't want to say anything, Luke wasn't done. "I ran… so far. It was too much, I was close. I'm glad Nick found me, if he hadn't…"

"Close? To what?"

Luke stared off into the distance, he wasn't quite ready to admit it, to himself or to Clementine. He had bottled it up and kept it hidden deep down but now was the time he had recovered those emotions, opened them up and allowed them to explode. He sighed, now was the time to say it, it wouldn't come up again and he could no longer keep it bottled up, it was killing him. "Suicide. You'd never think I do something like that, but I knew I could've stopped it."

"Well! Stop it! Stop blaming yourself! Because… You'll become suicidal, like last time!"

"I'm sorry. The guilt takes over sometimes, it's hard to get myself back."

"One day, you'll be alright, we both will."

"I really hope you're right."

"I am right."

Screams could be heard in the distance and then another from the other side of the highway. The screams were incredibly loud forcing Luke and Clementine to cover their ears.

Luke looked over to where the first scream came from, it was a lot louder than the second. In the field next to them a girl was running, running fast. She was scared, for her life. Men followed, holding crossbows and rifles. It was evident that the girl had been shot in the leg but she was still able to run. She was dressed in extremely short shorts with a revealing top, as if the girl wasn't your average survivor but instead was more for, entertainment.

Luke glanced over to the other side of the road, in the distance a man was running away from some men that had the same weapons as the men chasing the girl. The man had no top on and was wearing some shorts, making Luke suspicious to what the people were doing with the girl and the man.

"Get in that car."

"Shouldn't we help?"

"This ain't our fight. Get in that car!"

Luke and Clementine rushed over to a car that was lying upside down. The crawled into it, Luke lay in the front while Clementine lay in the back.

The girl ran onto the highway, she continued to run, but her leg failed her. She fell to her hands and knees and then to her stomach. She lay there, waiting. The men ran towards her, pointing guns at her head. They picked her up, tied her hands back and made her walk in front of them. The man came from the other side. He stupidly shouted for the girl causing one of the men to shoot him in the head. His body fell violently down, landing in a position that made his head face the car. His dead eyes stared into Luke's, blaming him for not helping. The girl cried out, she once again fell to her knees crying. The men picked her up from the ground, forcing her to leave the man.

"What happened?" Clementine whispered.

"A young girl was running away from some men and a man was running away from some men. The man died and the girl has been captured and is being taken back to wherever they came from." Luke whispered back.

"We coulda helped you know."

"There was too many men, too many for us to fight. It would be stupid to even try."

"Your humanity is gone."

"No, it ain't. I just couldn't risk our lives for people we don't know."

"You risked your life to save me and you didn't know me."

"That's different."

"How?"

"Lurkers surrounded you, we could fight them. We can't fight men that outnumber us."

"Hm."

Clementine pushed herself out of the car. The people were out of sight, but the man. He lay in his own blood with his mouth wide open and his body getting paler by the minute. Luke crawled out of the car; he looked at the man.

"He didn't even have a top on. What were they doing with them?" Clementine questioned.

"The girl was wearing a very revealing top. I think they were for, entertainment. Possibly-" Luke took a moment, Clementine looked up at him confused to why he stopped. "They might've been used for sex."

"Entertainment? And sex? So would people watch them, you know?"

"Yeah… now we never speak of this again. Okay?"

"Okay."

Clementine and Luke resumed where they left off, they walked down the highway for miles but it kept going like any highway does.

"Oh! How about this one. Where were you when it started?" Luke said excitedly.

"At my house, in this estate close to Atlanta. My babysitter answered the door. Someone was knocking violently. A lurker burst through and bit her a lot. I picked up a hammer and smacked it over the head but my babysitter looked dead. I ran to my treehouse to hide and I took my walkie talkie with me. I was there for a day and then Lee found me. Where were you?"

"I was in my house as well. I woke up like any normal day and went downstairs, my parents hugged me when I opened the living room. I was really confused but I looked at our TV and it was playing the News from Atlanta, helicopters were flying around buildings and police cars were going all over the place. Although one police car left Atlanta. But yeah. I was at home too, that same day Nick came over to our house and we held out there for a week."

"I've already said mine but when did you kill your first lurker and what did you kill it with?"

"Well, I had my machete from the start. It was something my grandfather gave me. It was about a week after it started, lurkers began to walk through our estate. I killed one then."

"I'm bored of this game. We should play 'I spy'!"

Luke sighed. "Okay. I spy with my little eye, something beginning with… S."

Clementine looked all around the surrounding area, she looked up and down, left and right and finally realised what it was. "Is it the sun!?"

"Yeah, your turn."

"I spy with my little eye, something beginning with, M."

"Easy. My machete."

"Nope!"

"Seriously? Huh, okay. Is it… the map sticking out of my pocket?"

"Nope! Try harder! Look around."

Luke glanced at everything surrounding him and spotted something in the distance. "Oh, is it that mall over there."

"Yes!"

"Are you suggesting we go there?"

"Yep!"

"Okay. Maybe we could get some new clothes. That'd be nice."

"It would."

Clementine and Luke peacefully walked into the Mall, it was wide open; no alarms would stop them from getting what the desperately needed. Strolling through the mall passing each empty shop just got more tedious with every step. Litter and rotten food covered the floor, bodies, dead bodies lay lifeless – completely dead – on the floor.

"Ah, here we go. This is the store I was lookin' for. It's where I got this jumper from."

Clementine ran into the shop, browsing every clothes rack and shelf. Luke calmly walked over to where the jumpers were located, he picked a jumper out from the clothes rack. He held it up so Clementine could see.

"It's my jumper."

"Haha. Get it, your jumper is very scraggily."

"Nah. I need something new." Luke browsed the other racks, he noticed something poking out of the rack. It was a brown jumper but it had a very different style. It was indented and had a turtle neck. Luke checked its size, he unstrapped his sheath, pulled off his jumper and looked down at his grungy top. He spotted a white t-shirt on the shelf next to him. He took off his shirt, showing his chest which was covered in scars, cuts and bruises, his chest was more purple than white. He pulled on the white shirt and the jumper. Luke looked down at his trousers, the bandage that had covered his bullet wound still remained; he picked out some new jeans and put them on. He examined himself in a mirror close by, he ruffed up his hair and straightened his jumper. He had a good look at his teeth and glanced down at his shoes, which were torn and worn out. Clementine snuck up on Luke, giving him a fright for the second time.

"Oh! Whoa! Okay you've gotta stop that Clem."

Luke inspected the new look Clementine had gotten. She was wearing a vibrant but dark purple t-shirt and a cardigan on top of it which was a bright yellow. She was wearing a watch on her right hand.

"I couldn't find Julia's bracelet, I think I lost it. But I have this now."

"Cool outfit. I didn't think you were a cardigan type of girl."

"I like 'em but they don't suit me."

"They do. How do I look?"

"Looking good."

"Ha. Wanna go to a shoe store next?"

"Yeah, my shoes are wrecked."

After many minutes of walking aimlessly around the mall trying to find a shoe shop, Luke finally noticed one.

"Go on. Get some shoes." Luke said.

Clementine ran in and picked out some trainers.

Luke sauntered in he found some brown boots, he obtained his size and pulled them on. He walked around in them and ran a little. The usual exercise you do when deciding if the shoes are good enough.

Clementine pulled on the trainers, she ran over to Luke and jumped up excitedly.

"What?"

"I always wanted a pair of these." The shoes had glitter on them and were purple, the glitter were all sorts of colours.

"You've got a thing for purple."

"Yes, I do. I'm guessing your favourite colour is brown."

"Yeah."

"Anyway, do you like 'em?"

"Sure. They ain't my kinda thing but they look good."

* * *

The two left the mall, ready to fight another battle with their new styles. The highway was darker than before, the clouds dominated the sky, pushing the sun behind them. The clouds were grey and dark but Clementine didn't know and neither did Luke. For the grey brought darkness and darkness would be the end of them.

The unexpected storm sprung on Clementine and Luke. It rained heavily, driving the two to run towards the trees for cover.

"There's no rivers nearby right?" Clementine asked.

"I don't think so."

"What now?"

"We wait it out, I guess."

"Will we be okay?"

"Of course, ain't nothin' gonna stop us from living through this. Well, unless a lurker gets us."

"That's not funny." Clementine hit Luke in the stomach, it was weak but Luke made it seem like she had given him the finally hit, that would knock him down and stop him from getting up.

"Hey! Less of the violence, y'know if you ain't got nothin' nice to hit, don't hit me. Okay, ow. Stop it!"

"Don't be a jerk."

"You're the one who hit me!"

Clementine lay back on a tree and slid down it, just like Luke did when he was bit. Luke sat beside her, allowing her to rest her head on him as she watched the rain gently hit the road.

"We'll be okay. Won't we?"

Luke caught her eye-sight, her golden eyes needed truth but the truth was grim. He didn't quite believe what he was about to say. "Yeah, we've made it this far, we'll be fine."

By the time the storm ended, it was late. The sun was setting, creating a beautiful sun set, the clouds projected the pinks and the sun highlighted the reds and oranges.

Luke emerged from the trees with Clementine close behind. The highway smelt of damp but something had changed, the mood of the two was tense.

"Trust is all we fucking have and you would just lose that?"

"Yes, Luke! I can't trust you, not when you're like this."

"Fuck… I'm sorry. I didn't- It's just-"

"Just calm down, there you go."

"Thanks Clem. We gotta find-"

Luke's vision became blurry, he fell to the ground, unable to move his limbs. Clementine rushed to aid him. He could only see her, panicking quickly searching through her backpack. She grabbed Luke's hand, holding it but he could no longer move, only his eyes showed his desperation to hold her hand.

"**Don't die."**

She said it so bluntly, she stopped all her flustering, staring into Luke's eyes, she watched as they turned pale, going white. His skin becoming cold, grey. His hair coming out in Clementine's fingers as she felt his forehead. He was dying, or was he already dead? Or undead? His last words, something Clementine would never forget as long as she lived.

"Cutting it off never works." And with his last breath, came his last word. "Run…"

Clementine let go off his hand, she shook her head, picked up her backpack and she took one last glance, a gaze into his dying eyes. The dark brown could no longer be seen. His colourful lips and his skin were colourless. Nothing could be done to save him. All Clementine could do was listen to Luke, she had to run.

And there is was. That highway was the death of him, after everything you would imagine he would live, that he would make it but nobody survives forever, even if you love them, everybody dies. One day death will come for Clementine although on that day, death only came for Luke. Giving Clementine one last chance. Nothing can stop what was meant to happen all along.

The words, the last words of all her dead friends echoed.

_I'm scared Clementine_

_I'll miss you_

_Somebody help me!_

_Clem, say something you're her friend_

_I'm gonna die!_

_I've got him_

And now a new last word:

_Run_

And that's what Clementine did, she ran and ran, and ran until she couldn't run.

* * *

"Clem? Clementine! Hey! You even listenin' to me?"

"Huh, what?"

"You went into some weird daydream. You okay?"

"I- I think I just dreamed you died."

"Whoa, Clem… uh, that's dark."

"Just like your soul."

"Excuse me? Heh, I was just sayin' we gotta find shelter."

"What if you turned? Right now. Could that happen?"

"I don't know." Luke examined his wound, he held where his finger used to be. "We cut it off and it's been a year, if I was gonna turn I would've already."

Clementine sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I just need to concentrate."

"Ah, you're that age where your mind switches off and goes someplace else."

"Hmph, the mall is just a little ways from here. It wouldn't take long to go back."

"Yeah, good idea."

Just as the two began to walk back to where they came from, music could be heard. Then an engine, rapidly a car came into sight. Luke grabbed Clementine and pulled her behind a car.

"It never ends." Clementine said.

"Shh. Just let 'em pass."

The car slowed down as it got closer to Clementine and Luke and came to a halt just in front of the car they were hiding behind.

"Just get up, would ya." A man shouted from the car.

Luke remained silent, he wouldn't or more he couldn't trust them.

"Get up you two. We know your there. We just wanna talk to ya."

"Dammit, come on." Luke said.

Clementine was the one to make the first step towards the people in the car. The man had the window rolled down, his red arm lay on it, he had little hair and his eyes were a bright blue. A women could be seen in the back of the car, she had blonde hair and brown eyes, and she looked young. Another man was in the passenger seat, he also looked young, yet his hands didn't show it, he had black hair and dark brown eyes.

"That wasn't hard, now was it?"

"What'd you want?" Luke said sharply.

"We're headin' to a camp. We need more people to enter. Ya need five. We were wonderin' if ya would like to come with us. We really need ya guys, please." The guy was almost pleading with them at that point.

Luke glanced down at Clementine, she nodded her head. "Why us?"

"Look at ya. You're both good survivors. Your weapons and your clothes, ya don't have a little finger. Y'know what's what."

"What's the catch?" Clementine asked, clearly she learned from the bridge incident.

"Ya have to come with us, no bailing and no killing. We outnumber ya, remember that."

"What is this camp?" Clementine throwing another question at them, she knew what to ask.

"We don't know. It said it had a farm and a school but ya need five people to enter because they need groups of people for work."

"Okay, we'll come with you." Clementine said, not giving Luke a chance to even ask his questions.

They slid into the car, it was boiling hot inside of it, the seats were plastic and the roof was peeling off.

"I'm Aaron. This guy is Raymond. And the woman sittin' next to ya is Viviana."

"I'm Clementine, and this is Luke."

"Okay, now we've got our names, we can get to this camp."

"How far is it?" Luke asked.

"It's eighty miles away."

"Okay."

* * *

**75 miles later**

* * *

"Okay, okay! Jesus, Luke. That joke was awful." Raymond said.

"Thanks." Luke said.

"Aha, he just means… the joke was pretty awful." Viviana trying not to give Luke a pity laugh.

"Well, it's true. If you had an auntie called clockwise, she would be called Anticlockwise."

"Hilarious. Ain't it Clementine?" Aaron said also trying hard not to laugh at how bad the joke was.

"It's not his worst joke. Trust me on that."

The car burst out laughing, it was the most fun they have had on the whole car journey the rest of it was just silence and strategy.

"I think y'all are gonna get on just fine. Ain't that so Raymond?" Aaron said.

"If Luke doesn't tell anymore of those jokes, we'll get on fine."

"What 'bout you Viviana, ya like these guys?"

"Yes, they're a barrel of laughs."

"Great! We'll be at the camp soon, so hold onto ya hats; this babies about to reach top speed."

And by top speed Aaron meant, 80 miles an hour. That is only slightly faster than what they were going at before.

Luke looked at Clementine, who was holding onto her hat, she looked worried as if it was going to fall off. "He meant it as a metaphor. Your hat ain't gonna fall off."

"Oh." Clementine said dropping her hands from her head.

"Aw, aren't you the cute one." Viviana said.

"I'm not cute. I was cute when I was eight but I'm past cute now."

"How old are you?"

"Twelve."

"You've grown up in this world then. Well, I still think you're cute. Age doesn't change cuteness."

"You can be cute sometimes." Luke said.

"Don't you start! I'm not cute."

"Oh, but you are. Just look at you, you're so cute!" Viviana said, even Luke was becoming scared of Viviana's reaction to Clementine's cuteness.

"Ya guys mind being a little quieter back there. I'm tryin' to focus!"

"Sorry Aaron, I get carried away sometimes."

"Yeah, can you not." Raymond said.

"Guys. Look!" Aaron said as he slowed down. Right in the middle of the road was a huge brick wall. With a block and then a space and then another block at the top, exactly like a castle. At the top people held crossbows, they were sitting back on deck chairs, waiting.

Aaron poked his head out of the window and waved to the top. One of the guards spotted him and did some weird hand gesture down at the other side.

"Drive in slowly! We will point you in the right direction!" The man shouted down.

"Thank you!" Aaron bellowed back.

"Don't mention it, Aaron!"

The gates opened, showing tents scattered everywhere on the road and on the fields next to it. The place was huge spanning out onto fields surrounding the road, the trees that were once on the fields had been cut down. The whole place was secure and safe. It had stone structures in the centre and wooden structures half built. At the sides of the field it had crop farms and animals. There was even children running around but they all still held onto their weapons. With a place this secure, do you really need them?

Aaron brought his head back through the window and drove slowly forward.

"Ya made it then. Welcome to our home."

"You mean this is your camp?" Luke questioned.

"As Aaron said, welcome to our home, you'll enjoy it here." Raymond said.

"Thank you." Luke said happily.

Clementine rested her head on Luke's arm. "I can't believe we're safe."

"I won't let anything hurt us anymore. You can count on that."

"Are you sure you can trust?"

Luke looked out of the window; the baking sun hit the middle, the clouds slowly moved along, the sky was aqua, which reminded Luke of the lake… he kept staring, as the car slowly inched closer to the gate.

"We'll be fine. We're always, fine…"

* * *

Aaron's face scowled, he glanced over towards the gunman standing at the gate; they weren't supposed to be there. The car suddenly stopped, it turned around and at top speed it left the camp behind.

"What are you doing Aaron!?" Viviana said.

"There's gunman at the gate!"

"That's the plan! Did no one fill you in, we needed test subjects." Raymond said.

"Screw that! I ain't puttin' these guys at risk!" Aaron said as he stopped the car. "Get out! Now! Run and don't come back!"

"I can't let you leave." Viviana said, aiming a gun at Luke and Clementine.

"It was all an act? Please, just let us go. No one needs to die." Luke said calmly.

Viviana pulled the trigger back, the bullet flew through the air, hitting the car window. Again she pulled the trigger back, it hit Clementine in the arm. Raymond grabbed Viviana's gun and pulled it away from her hands.

Clementine and Luke jumped out of the car; Aaron drove away as soon as they did. Clementine stared into the back window, she saw Viviana pressing her hands against the glass, her eyes were filled with hatred; the nice girl never existed.

"Like you said, it never ends."

"No, it doesn't." Clementine said holding her arm.

The sun fell from the middle of the sky, shining into Luke's eyes; he raised his arm up to block out the light.

"We've got a **long road ahead**. This is **a new day**; there's **no going back** 'cause there's **no time left**. Our humanity is **all that remains;** our group was more like **a house divided**; they put us **in harm's way** and **around every corner** there is another threat **amid the ruins**. But we're **starved for help**, so we better get movin'."

"Well said."

"Come on."

Clementine hugged Luke tighter than she ever did before; after the ordeal they just had, it was the only thing that could give either of them comfort.

"Thank you, for looking after me. I always wanted a sibling… you're like a brother to me."

Luke's heart could have melted at the words Clementine had just said. Ever since the cabin he thought of her as a sister but he never thought she felt the same. Now that she admitted it, Luke felt like his old self, something was restored. Possibly nostalgia of a happier time, when Luke and Clementine were more, innocent.

"And you're like a sister to me…"

"Really?"

"Yes, we're family. You're the closed thing I've ever had to a sister."

"You're the only one I could trust, you never hurt my feelings but I sometimes hurt yours."

"It doesn't stop me from caring."

"No, it doesn't. I'm glad you didn't die."

"I'm glad too."

The two smiled at each other; the depression that was setting in, never really was because as long as Clementine had Luke and Luke had Clementine, when one became depressed the other would bring them back up.

"Come on, we've gotta get movin'."

"We're always moving, can we just find somewhere we can stay?"

"If I see anything, yeah. We can find somewhere to stay."

And so they set off again, on the road. Doing the same things that had been doing for the last three years, finding somewhere safe, moving on because it's unsafe, killing someone, killing lurkers and scavenging. The only way the cycle can be broken is… to die.

Clementine fell to the ground, her hand letting go of her arm. Blood gushed everywhere, out of the corner of her eye she could see Luke furiously trying to help.

"YOU'RE NOT DYING ON ME CLEM. YOU AIN'T DOING THIS, NOT YET!"

With that said… it was the last thing Clementine heard before the darkness hit.


	6. Chapter 6: Darker Days

**One day later**

* * *

The storm had returned, every raindrop was the world's way of cleansing all of the blood and destroying chalk written notes.

The highway, the promise, the hope. It was all gone now. Everything. The new friends, the new chance and the new start was nothing but a lie, a test that could never be completed.

Clementine lay in Luke's arms, her body sinking in the middle while her head bent back. Her mouth was wide open, letting in all the air, while her arms were bare, she no longer had her cardigan on but instead she was wearing a bandage on the top of her right arm.

"Goddammit, you're not dyin' on me! Clem, I got the bullet out… You'll be okay."

"Just you wait. You'll wake up."

"Don't dare think about joining everyone up there, you're stayin' here with me…"

"Haha. I knew you wouldn't go."

"Still breathing, huh? Sounds like it's getting harder for you."

"You're thinking about leavin', don't. If you do, you're the asshole."

"You wouldn't want to be an asshole right?"

It was possible Luke had slipped into insanity, he was close before. But with Clementine being so near to death, he was losing himself. His mind was rushing with thoughts, bad thoughts. Thoughts of killing Viviana, in the worst way imaginable. Although Luke's head was a mess, he wasn't a killer, or was he? With Clementine being his last hope, his last friend, he couldn't let people take that away from him, he had killed before but that was in defence. His anger would be crueller.

Luke had no idea where he was, he was wandering through a street; a street that seemed familiar. He was in fact walking right down the middle of his home town, passing his neighbours houses. The way he was heading, he would arrive right outside his house.

He finally lifted his head, taking his eyes off Clem.

"Shit… My house…"

His house was still standing, of course. But the windows had been smashed, the door no longer existed and some of his favourite paintings lay all over his front garden.

It was too much to bare, knowing he had made it back to the start, he walked passed, passed the glass, passed the paintings and passed the house.

And continued to the farm house his father and mother once lived three miles on from his house, the land had no grass left on it and the pigs were missing, just like all the other places now, it was emotionless.

Luke entered the farm house, he overlooked all the memories, the photographs of his family, the books that his mother had once read to him. Everything that formerly mattered no longer did. He took Clementine straight to one of the bedrooms, lay her flat down and took off her hat. Her clothes were soaked through, luckily he still had some of his old clothes from when he was younger in his old room.

"Now where is that, ah. This will suit her, and this." Luke had picked out a green long sleeved shirt and some jeans.

Walking back to the room he had placed Clementine in, he observed the holder where his machete used to sit before the apocalypse.

"You've served me well, Granddad." Luke nodded at the holder and entered the room.

"How am I going to do this…? I don't wanna. Uhh, shit."

Luke observed her jeans and top, he closed his eyes and grabbed the hem on her t-shirt, he pulled it off with on swift motion although her arms got stuck. He opened his eyes and found the button on her jeans, he once again closed his eyes and unbuttoned her jeans pulling them off quickly. He picked up the dry clothes and tried his best to pull on the jeans and put on the top. When he opened his eyes again, he noticed he had put the top on back to front and the jeans were still unbuttoned.

"Great."

Once he had finished sorting out Clementine. He took a look at himself. His jumper and trousers were also soaking but nothing in his old room would fit him. He picked up Clementine's clothes and lay them on the banister outside of the room Clementine lay in; he picked up a chair from the corner of the hallway and placed it next to Clementine, he sat and waited for her to wake up.

Luke began to stroke Clementine's hair, his loving eyes stared into her tightly closed eyelids.

"You can wake up, you've gotta try. You're a fighter." He grabbed her hand with both of his. He moved her hand to his mouth and lightly kissed her fragile hand. He gently placed her hand back down, still holding it with his left hand; he lay his head down and rested with her.

After hours of drifting in and out of sleep, there was still nothing. All Luke could hear amongst the silence was Clementine's breath. With every minute that passed it seemed more and more likely Clementine wasn't going to wake up.

* * *

"_**Clem. Clem…"**_

"_**Lee…?"**_

"_**You've got a choice. You can give up fighting and be with us."**_

_**Lee stood to the side, the original members of her first group, Omid and the cabin group all stood beside him.**_

"_**Or you can live and be with, him."**_

"_**But… Lee…"**_

"_**Make a choice."**_

"…_**I choose to live, I don't wanna die."**_

* * *

Clementine squirmed and struggled, she became restless but it was the first time she had moved in hours.

"Clem? Clem, please wake up!"

Clementine coughed and coughed.

"Luke…" She coughed again and again but still she smiled. "Where are we?"

"My house. Clem, I was worried. I thought you weren't gonna make it."

"I got shot…" Clementine said as she glanced down at her hand that was still being held by Luke. She wrapped her fingers around his hand tightly and slowly let go. Luke awkwardly moved his hand away and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yes. The bullet was hard to get out but I managed it. Turns out teasers are useful."

"I saw Lee and the others in my dream…"

"You have to make a choice in it?"

"Yeah… how-"

"I had a dream like that just before I woke up, after the lake…"

"I wasn't ready to die."

"Good." Luke ruffled Clementine's hair which ended with Clementine glaring at him.

"I'm not a dog."

"Well, your hair needs a brush."

"No. I'm not getting it brushed."

Luke ran out of the bedroom. He ran into his parents' old room, immediately he stopped and scanned the room; his eyes filled up with tears. He took a picture off the wall and stared down at it. Another joyful picture of a once functional family, taken when Luke was ten years old at a theme park. The family looked happy, his father and mother had their hands on Luke's shoulders and Luke was in the middle with a huge smile on his face. Luke sniffled and placed the picture back on the nail it had sat on before. Seeing something Luke had forgotten about was startling, he knew that his parents were long dead but it still felt recent, in the normal world you have time to grieve but in the apocalypse you only have time to grieve once you're dead yourself. Luke strolled over to the right side of the double bed that spread across the middle of the room, he opened his mother's drawer and picked out a soft yet hard brush. He sprinted back to Clementine with the brush, he held it like a knife and his smile was like a serial killers.

"No. No, no, no, no!"

"It has to get done, or I'll chop it off!"

"…Fine."

Clementine sat at the edge of the bed facing the opposite direction. Luke moved the chair up to Clementine and sat down. He pulled the hair ties out of her hair, placed his hand behind her hair and began to brush down.

"ARGH! Luke stop. It hurts." Clementine said in a distressed tone.

"I'm sorry! Hm, my cousin acted like this when she had her hair brushed."

"I remember how much it used to hurt."

Luke began brushing again, each strand of hair had a knot, and some strands had clumped together to create huge knots.

Clementine began to cry, she swiftly moved her hands to the top of her head to stop the pain but it didn't help. "Ahhhh! It hurts, it hurts more than getting shot."

"I'm really sorry."

"I… It's okay. Ow!"

After many unbearable minutes of pain, her hair was finally unknotted and tidy.

"Do you want pigtails again or a ponytail?"

"Can you do a plait?"

"A plait!?"

"Yeah."

"Um, yeah. Nick and I were always mixed in with my cousins, all of them girls. One day they taught us how to do plaits. It was stupid. But we all sat in a circle doing plaits with each other's hair, Nick and I had mini plaits in our hair. Oh god, it was so stupid."

"Aw, stuck with the girls?"

"Haha, yep."

Luke began plaiting Clementine's hair, each crossover was neatly done just like a piece of art work. He twisted and twirled the hair, tightening it to be absolutely sure that the plait would be perfect. Clementine's hair had never been this neat in years, it was flawlessly done.

"Thanks, Luke." Said Clementine as she brought the plait to the front, she lay it down on her shoulder and pushed her fingers into the crossovers to test the sturdiness of each one.

"You're welcome."

"Are we going to stay here?" Clementine said as she positioned her hat on her head.

"I'm sorry Clem but we can't, it ain't safe and well. It's my house. The memories that are held here, I can't."

"I understand. There's other places we can go."

"Thank you."

"It's fine."

Clementine stared down at the clothes that she had been put in.

"You changed my clothes, did you look?"

"No! I did it with my eyes closed."

"Good, can I change back? These don't fit."

"Yeah, the clothes should be dry by now."

"Can you carry me?"

"Sure."

Luke stretched out his arms to allow Clementine to fall back on them.

"No, I mean. A… what is it? A piggyback!"

"Really?" Luke's face scrunched up, he slowly shook his head and chuckled. "Okay."

He turned his back to Clementine and placed his hands behind his back. "Jump on."

Clementine jumped onto Luke's back, he grabbed her legs and bounced her up. She took off her hat and placed it on Luke's head.

"Go forth!" Clementine shouted as she pointed towards the door, she kicked Luke like a horse.

"Haha." Luke stepped out of the room and _trotted_ up and down the hallway.

Clementine jumped off Luke's back as they passed the banister, she picked up her clothes and re-entered the room while Luke leant on the banister waiting for her to come out.

"Luke!" Clementine shouted.

"Yeah?" Luke said popping his head around the door.

"Can I have this?"

Clementine held out a sheath for a knife, it was similar to Jane's and would be perfect for Clementine's knife.

"Yes, I'm not gonna use it."

"Thanks."

"I'll tell you a funny story about that ol' thing. Pete came round to pick me up for a huntin' trip, I came bounding down the stairs with that on my leg. Pete handed me the knife, I slotted it in and the whole sheath came off. It was embarrassing, but funny."

"I bet you were better at it than Nick."

"Pete took me instead because Nick was too much of a scaredy-cat. I used to have two morals for that sorta thing. Don't kill humans or animals. Only kill animals on a hunting trip."

"What's your morals now?"

"If I really have to… I'll kill anyone or anything to keep us alive."

"That's a lot different."

"I shoulda realised sooner that I had to change my morals, people died because I was weak. It will never happen again, I promise you."

"Please don't make promises. In this world you can never keep them."

"I suppose I've broke too many already, sorry."

"We should go. No point in staying when we're going to leave anyway."

"You sure, you don't wanna rest some more?"

"I'm sure."

Leaving behind the start of Luke's journey was hard for him, he had went in a complete circle. All that time he spent trying to move on, to keep going. How could he do that when the past kept catching up with him?

* * *

"I'm starin' to lose faith." Luke said.

"Faith in what?"

"In… God. My parents are probably turnin' in their graves but this shit is never gonna end, where was God when my family died, when our friends died?"

"Luke, if anything is gonna keep you going, its God."

"I wish I could believe that. But at this point, you're the only thing keepin' me together."

"At least have faith in Heaven and Hell."

"But we'll end up in Hell. What we've done… God wouldn't accept us."

"Maybe, maybe not."

"I wish I could stay strong. It's never gonna get better."

Clementine walked in front of Luke, she held her hands up and stopped him from walking. She looked him in the eyes.

"You're starting to sound like Nick."

"Yeah… I am. Nick was right, I just thought he was weak but now I realise how he felt."

"Nick wasn't right, he was depressed he didn't see the point in surviving but you. You do, you have something to fight for!"

Luke began to pace back and forth. Again and again he walked left to right, right to left.

"What're gonna do? There's nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. Nowhere is safe, nowhere lasts long enough!"

"Luke, shut up!"

"But!"

"Shut. Up."

"Okay."

"Listen to me for once. We always make it through, don't doubt it now. We've went through a lot but that doesn't mean we have the luxury to give up!"

"What am I thinkin'? I just lose myself. Nah, I'm not giving up, just worryin'."

"It will be okay. I know we both say it a lot and then shit happens but we keep going. We don't quit."

"Because the most important thing is family and that's what we are now."

* * *

The two continued to walk, several days had passed since Luke had broken down. Since the lake, since Julia, since the start. Luke had always managed to hide his emotions from everyone, even his best friend but spending so much time with Clementine had changed his way of thinking. He felt free to speak his emotions without being judged, he didn't have to be Clementine's leader or protector, he just had to be her friend, her brotherly figure.

The sky was grey it very much reflected the mood of Clementine and Luke. It was the middle of March. Spring sounds were all around, blossom covered trees and the birds were dropping worms everywhere. But with all the new life, there was a lack of it. No pigs and no cows. The typical spring animals, their babies would be born around this time but all of them were dead, no more piglets, no more calves.

"Do you miss pigs?" Clementine asked.

"Yeah. My Dad was a pig farmer, of course I miss 'em. I'm sure it runs in my veins, we traced back to the medieval era and even then we farmed pigs… I got close to the animal but now they're all gone."

Clementine sighed deeply. "Should we keep hoping?"

"So you're gonna be the depressing one today? …Yes. We should, every day gets harder. Doesn't it? But we shouldn't stop hoping."

"It gets harder but Lee used to tell me things would get better. It's been three years, things aren't gonna get better."

"Give it three more or five… uh years. By then things will get better. I think."

"Five years… We'll be dead or worse."

"Just hope, Clem."

Clementine rolled her eyes, she looked out of the corner of her eye. "Why're here?"

Luke had lead Clementine straight into one of his old meeting spots, it was a small town but had plenty of shops and houses for them to raid.

"I know a gun store around here." Luke said.

"There won't be any guns."

"No, but there might be a holster."

"You already have one."

"I mean for you."

"Why?"

"Because it will be easier for you to get your gun."

"Ah."

Luke snuck into an alleyway, he sliced a lurker's head open with his machete and gestured Clementine to come over.

"Why'd you do that?" Clementine asked.

"I know a short cut."

Soon enough Luke and Clementine emerged from the alleyway; next to them, the gun store stood proudly.

"Well, its windows are smashed and it looks pretty much empty but we gotta try."

Upon walking in the whole place was a wreck. Glass covered the floor, the glass cases were empty, ammunition was gone and even the laser sight box had been completely emptied. Luke began searching the room, he looked under boxes and moved pieces of glass around.

"There's nothing, Luke. Let's go."

"Aha! Found one. It's a little worn but it'll get the job done." Luke said as he walked over to Clementine. He strapped it onto her waist; he took the gun out of her jeans and slotted it into her holster.

"There you go."

"Thanks. I always wanted a holster."

"Consider it as a late Christmas present."

"Haha, okay."

Clementine looked over her shoulder, the sun came into to view. The sky had transformed from grey to orange, the day was ending. "Where do we go now?"

"No idea."

"You always have a plan!"

"Not this time."

In the distance a gunshot was heard. Clementine and Luke instantly moved away from the windows. Luke examined the area, he looked for the person who had set off the gun.

"Can we take 'em?"

"I can't see 'em."

As Luke kept observing a women finally came into sight, she had long brown flowing hair and was wearing skinny jeans and a tight top. At least twenty men followed behind her – they were all wearing camouflage and were holding crossbows and rifles - one of the men was holding a gun to a girl; she was the girl from the highway.

"It's the girl from before, the one that was running away!"

"We need to hide, if they catch us…"

"They might use us for-"

Clementine and Luke stepped behind the counter, as they moved a large piece of glass shattered creating a loud crack.

The women gestured to the men and pointed to the gun store. Five men ran over to the gun store and jumped in through the windows. They began searching around, Luke and Clementine moved further under the desk, sticking close to each other.

One of the men walked behind the counter, he scanned the floor for a moment.

"Alright! I don't think anyone's here. It might've been a rat." One of the men shouted.

They all jumped back through the window and reassembled their positions behind the women. The man holding the gun to the girl pushed her forward. Luke peeked above the counter, she caught eye-sight with him and glared, she moved her lips as if she was about to speak but hung her head low and stayed quiet.

"The girl knows we're here." Luke said.

"You idiot."

"I know… come on, we can sneak back through the alleyway."

Clementine and Luke snuck out of the gun store, they approached the alleyway. Luke ran in. Clementine lingered, she looked at the girl, the girl who was in the process of being taken back to the hell hole she had come from. Clementine kept staring but by the time Luke noticed she wasn't following it was already too late.

"Get her!" The women shouted.

Ten men ran towards Clementine but she just stood there. Luke grabbed her and held her hand while running with her out of the alleyway. Once they were out he picked her up and kept running. He opened a door to a house and ran in. He closed it gently and ran up the stairs; he placed Clementine down and ran into a bedroom.

"Get in the wardrobe! Now!"

"Shit!"

Clementine got in the wardrobe and Luke got in with her, he closed the door the best he could and waited.

"You knew exactly what you were doing."

"It's not the first time I've had to do that. We used this house to get away from cops, a few times. Maybe more."

"I'm sorry. For acting-"

Luke put his hand over Clementine's mouth, he moved it away as she realised what was going on. The men burst into the house, shouting at each other to search the place. Several men ran up the stairs and two men came into the room Clementine and Luke were in.

"She always wants more sex subjects for her entertainment. She can be a creep sometimes."

"She can be. The girl looked like a kid. I don't wanna become a paedophile."

"We should've got on that boat. You could be with Christa but you were stupid enough to make a deal with the devil, screw you Joshua."

"Max, you know that boat would be the death of us. Christa, knew that. We knew that. But she got on anyway and left us. Left me. I thought Amanda had a good camp, I was wrong. But now isn't the time to talk about this. Let's go."

The men left the room and bounded downstairs. The door slammed violently; Luke let out a deep sigh.

"So, they would've used you for sex. You're only twelve. I can't believe it."

"Christa… do you think, it could've been Christa?"

"Your friend, right? I don't know, possibly? I recognise their voices, those men were the guards at the boat."

"How did they end up here?"

"I've got no clue."

"Anyways, I'm glad you realised what was going on."

"I told you, I won't let anyone hurt you."

"Thanks Luke."

Luke pushed open the wardrobe, he guided his hand to Clementine, she grabbed it and was pulled out. They quietly tiptoed down the stairs and slowly opened the front door. Clementine and Luke left the house, shaken and scared of what could have been. They knew the danger of leaving so soon after but how could they have known?

"Got 'em!" A man said as he moved forward from behind the house.

"Aw… fuck!" Luke said.

"Fuck indeed, young man. And suppose you were, to fuck this young lady here. Would you still say _aw_?"

"You're sick!" Luke exclaimed. "I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because…" Luke desperately tried to come up with an excuse but only one came to mind. "'Cause she's my sister!"

"Shh. Who ever said incest was wrong?"

"I did!" Luke said.

Clementine appeared scared but she stood her ground, no one would make her do what the women was implying.

"You know what you are? Gross. I would never have sex with him!"

"You wouldn't be the first sibling group to have sex. Y'know what happens if you don't? You die."

"That ain't fair!" Luke said.

"Oh, but it is. I get my entertainment and you get a kick out of it while she's terrified."

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Yeah! What the fuck is wrong with you?" One of the men shouted.

All of the other men aimed their guns and crossbows at him.

"Shoot him!" The women said.

"Wait!" The man shouted; he fell to the ground, bullets and arrows covered his body. He was dead the second the women said yes.

"Oh my god!" Clementine exclaimed.

"Same goes for anyone else who denies my fun!"

"That…" Luke said.

"That what? Too afraid huh? You thought you could get away but we got you."

"That was messed up!"

"Do you wanna die? Because I will kill you, if you refuse to have sex."

"You can't make me!"

"Oh, but I can and if you don't. You know what I do? I slit your throat!" The women said while laughing. "I'm Amanda, I will be the last person you ever see. Tie them up!"

The men tied Luke and Clementine up with duct tape. They were put in line next to the girl, a man walked up behind them and pushed them all forward.

"I'm sorry. Your life is gonna be hell." The girl said.

"I'm sorry for not helping you." Luke said.

"No talking!" The man kicked Luke and the girl as their punishment.

The orange sky turned red, the clouds covered the red tinge to the sky and then all became dark. The men turned on their torches and continued walking in their set positions behind Amanda.

"Will I have to… y'know?" Luke whispered ever so quietly to avoid attracting attention.

"Yes… you'll have to fuck your sister." The girl replied.

"Dammit."

They kept walking or more they were forced to keep walking. Luke had no idea of what he was about to face, what he might be forced to do. It was okay when it was Jane because he at least felt attracted to her but his own friend, someone who had become his sister, how could he even think of such a thing?

"Okay! Everyone, we'll set up camp here. Tomorrow we'll arrive at our home!" Amanda announced. They had walked so far they were standing in the middle of a wood, the dense trees blocked out all light.

The man holding Luke and Clementine at gun point left them to help with putting up the tents, giving them an opportunity to get away.

"Clem, see if there's any way out of here."

"Okay."

"We won't be able to get out of this duct tape. There's no escaping, I've tried before." The girl said.

"What's your name?" Luke asked.

"Rachel."

"Okay, Rachel. I need you to find something sharp."

"Clem, have you found a way out?"

"Yes, no one is behind us, we're right in the corner."

"Alright then, these guys are stupid, we've still got our weapons, we can get out!"

"Could we use Clementine's knife?" Rachel asked.

"I guess, I could try to reach it."

Luke inched up to Clementine, he began fumbling around with his hands in an attempt to make them freer so he could grab the knife. He moved to the other side of her, moving his hands to the sheath on her leg. His left hand slightly slipped out of the tape enabling him to grab the knife. He slowly pulled it out of the sheath and placed it on the ground. He spun it around and picked it up again, its new position sliced the tape open. Luke dropped the knife and pulled his hands away, making him free. He picked up the knife again and cut open the tape that was keeping Clementine's and Rachel's hands tied. They sustained their low positions and ran out of sight. They stood up and sprinted, Rachel was considerably slower because of her leg but nevertheless they got away from the men and the horrific Amanda.

Once they had felt they had covered enough distance, they fell to the ground and rested.

"Y… You think they might find us?" Luke said.

"Maybe, they're very persistent. They chased me for miles."

"I'm sorry, we were there and we didn't help you."

"You were there?! Did you see my brother?"

"He… he was your brother?"

"Yes, we were forced to have sex. We came up with a plan to escape but they found out before long they caught up to us. And you know the rest then."

"I'm so sorry."

Rachel began to cry, her tears were louder than her words.

Clementine handed Rachel a leaf in place of a tissue, it was a kind gesture but wouldn't help too much with the tears.

"Thank you." Rachel dabbed her checks with the leaf, dropped it and wiped the tears away with her hands. Her top was clear - you could see her breasts – it was ripped and torn. Her wrists were small and delicate and her hair was a striking platinum blonde.

Luke observed her arms and wrists, they had cuts and lines across them. She had been self-harming, the scars were deep but it was acceptable because her life for the last two years wasn't a life worth living.

"You self-harm?" Luke asked.

"Used to… two years in that place, it can drive you insane."

"What's self-harm?" Clementine questioned.

"It's, well-"

"I hurt myself to make the pain go away. I don't know why I did it…" Rachel closed her eyes. "You guys should go."

"What do you mean?" Luke asked.

"I can't survive out here. But you guys can, you are good survivors, I can see that but I don't belong here."

"We can't leave you out here." Clementine said.

"You can and you will. My leg is busted and I only know how to have sex. You guys can make it, forget about me. You did what you could."

"Find them! Right now!"

"Dammit, they found us. Come on! Get up!"

"No, you go. Protect her and, don't die."

Luke and Clementine picked themselves up and ran. The men would easily find them if they didn't run, if they didn't sprint.

"There's footprints! They went this way Amanda!"

"What are you waiting for?! FIND them!"

The men could see them in the distance they thought they could escape, thought they could run. Sadly this wasn't the case, Amanda wouldn't let her one bit of fun escape, not when she needed it so badly.

Rachel got up and ran in another direction, leg gave out and just like the highway. She screamed and waited.

Rachel was picked up by the men, she was guided back by some of them. Three men continued to follow the tracks Clementine and Luke were leaving. They couldn't run forever, eventually someone would wind up dead.

The duo were once again allowed to go on, people kept dying whenever they met up with Luke and Clementine. It was almost like they were cursed, all the good people that were lost; never to be found, another person left behind, yet again.

Amanda's voice could be heard in the distance, shouting orders. The torches that edged closer and closer to Luke and Clementine disappeared. "Let them get away! For now… we'll catch up to them!"

They kept running, the darkness only got darker. The wood limited the moon light, the density of the trees only became larger. It was clear that they had lost their way.

Luke stopped for a while, bend to his knees. He caught his breath and his face showed horror. As if everything he had done for the past year just struck him.

"Rachel let herself get caught!"

"She believes we can survive. She only knew how to have sex, but she wanted us to live."

"Probably. Still, we get to live normally while she gets to live… that life."

"Life ain't fair." Clementine said in a southern accent, clearly mocking Luke.

"Don't use my own words against me."

"Luke, we have to keep going!"

"Yeah!"

* * *

Seconds, minutes, then hours passed. Clementine and Luke hadn't seen the men again. They were completely on their own. The sun arose on the horizon, the birds flew overhead, flying over the trees. Luke tripped out of the wood and fell face first on the grass.

"My legs have never been this weak."

"We ran for a long time."

"They'll find us if we don't keep going."

"Do you think they're still following us?"

"Yes, I heard Amanda say they'll catch up to us. I can't risk you and I being made-"

A hand extended out to Luke, it was a large hand evidently not Clementine's.

"Get up."

The voice was deep but gentle. Luke grabbed the hand and was pulled up from the ground.

"I'm Joshua. I'm one of the men from the camp, I'll help you get away."

"Why should we trust you?" Clementine asked.

"Because, I think what Amanda is doing is wrong. I once was one of her, sex subjects. I only became a guard because of issues… You have no reason to trust me but her camp isn't too far away. If she finds you. You'll be forced to have sex tonight." Joshua had a good look at Luke and Clementine. "Wait… you're the two who tried to get on the boat!"

"Your friend gave me a gun… yeah. Nice to see you survived."

"Sorry about that whole incident, we had to lie. My girlfriend then left me and we ended up with Amanda."

"Christa was her name, right?" Clementine asked.

"Yes, she was a great women. I'll never see her again. The boat was heading for the UK."

"What did she look like? I think I know her."

"When I found her. She wore an orange hoodie and had her hair in a bun."

"Yeah, that's her. She looked after me for a year."

"She mentioned you, I thought it could've been you. Fuck. This isn't the time to be talking! We have to go!"

"Clem. Look, we've got to trust him."

"Fine, but if we're lead straight to the camp, it's your fault."

"Okay."

"I have a van waiting for us, we have to go now because Amanda was about to set out again when I left."

"Let's go."

The trio set off, on a short walk to the van that could save them from a terrible fate. The sun glared into the eyes of the three but it didn't stop them from powering through.

"The van's over there, on top of that hill."

"Well, what're we waitin' for?" Luke asked.

"I have to be sure no one followed us… We're good."

The three ran towards the hill, they approached the van with care, still checking they were safe. Luke and Clementine got in the back and Joshua jumped in the front. A man was sitting in the driver's seat, he was slightly older than Joshua and looked more serious.

"You got them then."

"Yeah, don't doubt me next time Max."

"I was thinking of going north."

"Sounds good."

"Hell yeah!"

"North!?" Luke and Clementine said in sync.

The van drove off, it sped down the hill creating tire tracks in the grass. The sun shone brighter and the sky brought out the best blues. The clouds faded and the birds sang on the trees.

* * *

**Four Days Later**

* * *

Rain, trees, darkness. Blood, bruises, dying.

"Clem! Clem! Oh god, where are you!?" Luke shouted. "We shouldn't've split up." He said quietly.

"L-Lu-Luke!" Clementine said weakly.

Luke ran towards the quiet voice, searching for it.

"Clem! Shout again!"

"Lu! Luke!"

This time her voice led him straight to her.

"Oh god. What did they do to you?"

Clementine's face was purple with lines of red all over. Bruises covered her cheeks, her forehead and her chin. She had blood dripping from the top of her head, cuts seeping with blood on her cheeks and her nose was blocked up with blood.

"They- wouldn't, s-st-stop!"

Water joined her blood covered face, the tears slid down her cheeks and fell off her chin.

Luke collapsed beside her, lifting her head off the ground and into his arms, he brought her closer to his chest and hugged her tightly while tears collected on his face. He rubbed his eyes and brushed away the tears before pulling himself together. He reached into Clementine's backpack, bringing out a fresh cloth and a bottle of water. He dabbed her face with it, the blood was wiped away; her face was only purple no longer red.

"This'll sting."

He poured some hydrogen peroxide onto the cloth and lightly dabbed the cuts on her cheeks. She felt little, her face was numb from the pain. She smiled at Luke briefly before releasing it as the discomfort from it was too much to bare. He twisted the cap off the bottle and tilted it, Clementine struggled to find the strength to drink from the bottle.

A shadowy figure in the distance watched as Luke helped Clementine. It kept staring at them. Luke turned his head in the direction the figure was in.

"Who are you?" Luke called out.

The figure walked towards Luke, when it got close it was clear that it was one of the men in camouflage.

"I never meant for it to get that far, I'll help."

Clementine had her eyes wide open, she was scared. Scared of what the man might do. She quivered and looked to Luke for help but he was no longer there, he had changed, his tone had changed; the look on his face showed true anger. "What happened!?"

"Some of my men... Amanda ordered us to, she didn't want to bring you back after you escaped from that van. She wanted us to rape and kill her so we raped her, I allowed it, watched it happen. I shouldn't've but I did, even laughed. We decided we would leave her like that so the roamers would finish her off."

"What the fuck?"

Luke pulled out his gun. For the first time, Luke didn't care that he was aiming at a defenceless person, his hand was steady; he was ready to shoot. The man put his hands up and began to back away.

"We- We- We- We didn't mean anything by it! It- it was an order! I- I'm sorry!"

"_I. Don't. Care_."

Luke gently placed Clementine's head on the ground, she began to panic. At that point she wasn't sure who she had to be scared of, the man who had hurt her or her only friend. Luke dashed towards the man and pressed the gun on his watery forehead.

"Sweating? You scared?"

"J- J- Please… d- d- d- don't!"

Luke glanced back at Clementine for a brief moment, her eyes were trying to persuade him to stop but he was too far down _that _road to be persuaded; he slowly looked back at the man.

"You gonna tell me you've got a loved one?"

"Yes, my kid."

"How old?"

"Fifteen…"

"Good, that's good."

Luke removed his machete from his sheath, he slowly pressed it into the man's skin, he bled and he kept bleeding while the machete continued its journey through the man. The machete pieced his heart and it gradually poked out of the other end of him. Luke pressed the trigger vigorously. He almost smiled as he withdrew his machete and watched the man softly fall to the ground, blood draining from his head and chest. Clementine turned her head to the side, gawking at the man Luke had killed. She stared as Luke stood with his sleeves pushed up, his hair messy and sweaty and most of all his hands as steady as ever. He felt no remorse, he just glared at the man with the gun that finished him off tightly in his left hand and his blood covered machete in the other. Luke had finally lost the battle of humanity; the one thing that kept him strong was gone, the one thing that could save someone from insanity was gone.

Luke was gone.

He rushed back to Clementine, lifting her head up again he noticed the expression she was giving him, the look of fear.

"He deserved it."

"You- you're, in- insane."

"Look, he hurt you. He needed to die!"

"Where are you!? You're not Luke anymore!"

"Listen… Everything is fine… We're fine. I'm fine."


	7. Chapter 7: Holding on

**Two days later**

* * *

Clanging of metal off metal. The squealing of unoiled wheels. The buzzing in his ears, especially the buzzing in his ears. The sounds he could hear, before his eyes were ready to open. As soon as his heavy eyelids stopped resisting, he wished he didn't try to wake up. The area around him, it looked grungy, dirty. Someone, could have been male or female was rushing around him. Tying something to his arm. His vision was blurry, yet he could see the most confusing thing in the situation.

Clementine, arms folder, eyes drifting off to the side. She was standing behind a glass window, men and women stood beside her, again arms folded. They all watched as the undefined person tended to Luke. His vision suddenly snapped, he was able to see clearly. He whipped up his head. The people behind the window began to panic. One, the biggest and most important looking man pressed his finger down.

"He's awake!"

The person ran to the other side of the room. With Luke's vision intact he observed his surroundings.

Four walls, all black. One window Luke was able to see them and they were able to see him. The room was a medium size, a table sat below the window, the person trying to sort out something frantically. The table was metal and a trolley also made of metal was close to Luke's left arm which had something tied to it. Luke's eyes were drawn to it; he looked at himself, nothing was wounded or missing.

What was going on?

His hands were tied to a metal chair, his legs also tied. He moved, struggled but nothing would budge. Luke lifted his head, staring into the window, his eyes looked evil further spurring on the people's worries of Luke.

Clementine asked the man something. Clementine opened the door and the person who was still sorting out something left. Clementine was wearing some new clothes. She had new jeans and a green leather jacket, with her purple top underneath.

"I'm sorry."

"Clem? I don't understand."

"They found you, passed out. Covered in blood, with me lying next to you, covered in blood."

"What's goin' on?"

"If you would let me finish. They want you dead, for _hurting _me. I tried to tell them it wasn't you but they thought I was protecting you."

"I'm gonna die?"

"Yes. I tried Luke!"

"What!? No! Clem, you've got to tell them!"

"I've tried. I'm sorry!" Clementine said as a tear rolled down her cheek. She ran over to Luke and hugged him tightly. She whispered something into his ear. "I need you to stay strong, I'll try and persuade them. I won't let you die."

The people behind the window watched with bated breath.

Clementine held Luke's left hand. "You'll be okay." He held onto her hand, wrapped his three fingers around her cold skin and smiled at her for what could be the last time.

The person that was tending to Luke came back into the room. "Your time is up."

Clementine let go of Luke's hand and swiftly turned around. "He didn't hurt me! Fucking believe me!" Clementine shouted.

"You have to leave."

"No! Let him go!"

"Clem, leave it. They're not gonna let me go."

"I'm not letting you fucking die!"

Clementine inched towards the metal trolley, picked up a scalpel and pointed it towards the person.

"Don't fucking come near us!"

"Clem… put the scalpel down."

Clementine glanced over at Luke. "I'm sorry…"

"Go on, put it down."

Clementine slowly placed the scalpel on the trolley. The bigger man calmly walked into the room.

"Listen to me, 'kay? You've done what you can."

"No!" Clementine turned to the man. "He didn't hurt me! Some men, they raped me! Punched me, knocked me out but it wasn't Luke! It wasn't him! He helped me!" Clementine yelled, her anger was beginning to rise.

"Clementine stop! Just, stop. Before you do something you'll regret."

The man turned to the person who had been trying to get Clementine out of the room. "Quella, untie him. I've heard enough of this."

"Okay Quentin."

"Luke? That's your name?"

"Yes."

"Guards! Take this man to debrief."

"Yes sir!" Two guards said in sync. Quella untied Luke's legs and the men pulled him up and each grabbed one of his arms and guided him out of the room.

"Clementine, follow me. We'll watch Luke's debrief."

* * *

Quentin, Clementine, the guards and Luke walked down hallways and up the stairs. Luke looked out a window, he was trying to work out where they were. It looked like a small town, the building had a concrete path leading out to a gate.

"What building are we in?" Luke asked the guards who had let go of him but were pointing guns at him instead.

"It's a school." One of the guards replied.

Luke nodded, they walked down a hallway to the last door at that end. The guards opened the door, one went inside with Luke while the other stood outside with Quentin and Clementine.

Another man from the situation beforehand arrived outside the door, before going in Quentin whispered something in his ear.

The man walked in. The room was small, almost like a large cupboard but it was big enough for a table, two chairs and had room to spare for one guard. As if the room was imitating an interrogation room.

The man sat down opposite Luke. "Hello. My name is Curtis. I'll be asking you a few questions, got it?"

"Yeah."

"Who is Clementine, to you?"

Luke knew the answer, she was his only surviving friend but recently it had become more, she was a sister to him now. "She's my, sister."

"Oh really?"

"Really."

Luke glanced over to Clementine. Hearing what he said she nodded.

"How did you find Clementine, in the forest?"

"She was lying, next to a tree. Blood was dripping from her nose, cheeks and her head. She had bruises all over her face."

"Pretty convincing. Sounds like you could have inflicted them, look at her! She has a face so battered up, it's unbelievable her eyes weren't hit."

"You really think I did it? Don't you?"

"Why were you _split _up from Clementine anyway?"

"We escaped a van when we were betrayed by someone we thought we could trust. His name was Max he wanted to trade us in. The guy who helped us to the van, Joshua, let us go. We ran but men chased after us. We found a house to hide in, we stayed there for two days before they found us, so we split up. Most of the men followed me. I lost them when I climbed up a tree. Clementine and I had arranged a meeting spot. I waited for hours but she never came. I went lookin' for her and found her like that."

"Again, convincing."

"It's the truth."

"One more question, have you ever hurt Clementine?"

"No!"

"If you fail this. We will take Clementine off you and kill you."

"You can't do this."

"Stay here. Do not move."

Curtis left the room and began talking to Quentin. Clementine backed away from them and ran away crying. Curtis ran after her and Quentin entered the room.

"What did you do to her?"

"She overheard us talking. We're going to execute you unless you tell us the truth."

"I have told you the truth!"

"So tell me. Why did Clementine scream to tell you to stop when she woke up?"

Luke closed his eyes, trying to remove the moment but having to remember it in order to survive. "The last thing I did before she passed out… I killed a man in a slow painful way because he allowed his men to rape her. I couldn't let a man like that to live. She tried to stop me but I killed him anyway. Pushed my machete straight through his heart and shot him in the head."

"That's insane! You're not fit to look after a little girl."

"She's more than a little girl."

"Whatever you think isn't the right mentality. We were going to give you a non-public death, quick and painless. But now I think the best way for you to pay for what you've done, is to hang you."

"What!? No! You can't kill me! Clementine needs a friend, a brother. She won't be able to cope with the guilt!"

"But you just said-"

"Doesn't mean she doesn't feel guilt. If you do this… she'll never forgive you."

"If she doesn't forgive me, she can always leave the camp."

"Why can't I leave?"

"Because you're dangerous."

"Just listen to me!"

Quentin got up from the seat, he walked towards the door; he placed his hand on the handle and looked over his shoulder. "It's a good day to be your last."

"I'll explain! Please!"

"It's a good day…" Quentin said as he opened the door and left.

Luke sat back in his seat and looked up at the guard still standing proudly.

"You agree with this? With any of this?"

"No… it's wrong especially in this world but it has to be done."

"Just, just let me outta here."

"I can't, I'm sorry."

"…When will I be hanged?"

"Soon."

"Great. Just, great."

* * *

Luke stared at the dark walls of the room, his eyes batted from one side to the other. He got lost in thought, wondering what his friends felt when they knew their death was coming. All of Luke's guilt began to consume him but instead of blocking it out he let it take over as he knew that he was going to die.

Clementine approached the room and glared at Luke. Blaming him for failing the questions. A small but sad tear rolled down her cheek. She tried to hold back her emotions but wasn't able to, she fell to the floor crying, before long guards pulled her up and took her away. Luke watched as they almost dragged her across the hallway. He slammed his hand on the table and stood up, the guard behind him placed his hand on Luke's shoulder.

"Don't, you'll give them more reason to kill you sooner than later."

Luke slowly sat back down, he placed his head on the table and placed his hands on the back of his head.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"No, I'm sorry."

Luke sighed he propped his head on his hands and waited for the guards to take him away.

After a short while two guards entered the room, they looked at the guard standing at the corner. He nodded and left while the two guards pulled Luke up from his chair and tied his hands behind his back with rope.

"How many people have been executed?"

"At least thirty." One of the guards answered.

The cold, empty walk to the gym was daunting, knowing it could be the last time he ever saw the outside, he stared out a window. The sun was beginning to set and there was no clouds in sight but only seconds after that clouds covered the sun, blocking out the light.

The guards shoved Luke forward into the gyms, a crowd of people surrounded him. They all watched as they walked up the middle of the gym. Instead of a basketball hoop at the end, there was a stand with a noose tied to some wood.

"This is where I die?"

"Yes, this is where you die."

Quentin and Curtis stood on the platform, with their hands behind their backs; they looked proud and content with what they were about to do. The guards placed Luke on the spot where the platform would collapse and snap Luke's neck.

One of the guards took the noose and put it over Luke's head, he felt the rope against his neck tighten slowly; it was warm and it rubbed against his neck. The guard finished tightening it and stood beside the other guard that was hovering over the lever that would cause Luke's death.

Clementine walked into the gym with guards behind her, she locked her eyes onto Luke and he raised his head and clasped eyes with Clementine. She walked a couple more paces before running forward. The guards caught her arms and pulled her back, she struggled and squirmed kicking her legs and moving her arms as much as she could but the guards wouldn't let go, still she tried.

"LUKE! LUUUUKE! LUUUUUUUUKE!" She shouted his name, over and over and over.

"Any last words?" Quentin asked.

"Yes… Clementine!?"

Clementine stopped moving but the guards didn't let go. She nodded her head and waited for his words that would be his last.

"Just remember, remember nothin' was ever your fault. 'Kay?"

"Okay, okay." She said, almost crying.

"I'm sorry but this is the only way." Curtis said. "Hello! People of Ellien! This man." Curtis pointed to Luke. "He was a man of the outside. But two days ago, he killed someone. This person looked like a solider so we have decided because of his method of killing and who he killed that this man should die. After finding out what he did, we decided a hanging would be better and would have a better effect than the injection!"

The crowd of people roared at the speech, they were excited and began to chant.

"Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!" They repeated.

"NO!" Clementine pleaded. "STOP IT!" She yelled. But no one listened.

The guard that hovered over the lever placed both hands on it, he got in position and as he was about to pull it back…

"You, guard. Stop that right now!"

"Okay, ma'am." The guard released his grasp on the lever and stood up with his arms behind his back.

"Garnet?" Quentin questioned.

"What's your daughter doing here? Curtis said

"I don't know."

"This man. He did what was right, he didn't kill in cold blood."

"How do you know?" Curtis asked.

"Because I was there, I saw what happened to Clementine."

"You were there? Without a guard?"

"Yes Dad, I'm not a little girl anymore. Anyway, I'm sad to say I watched it happen. And the man this man killed did indeed order Clementine to be raped and hurt but not killed. In the middle of it, he told his men to move and he began to rape her. Which I'm sure this man didn't know. Did you?"

"He said he ordered it, not that he did it himself."

"See? This man did the right thing. He shouldn't be hanged, he should be let go along with Clementine."

Curtis stepped forward. "Alright, that's it for today everyone. Go back to your rooms."

The crowd disappeared in a matter of seconds, sounds of muttering and sighing could be heard as they left.

The guards pulled the noose off Luke's neck, he staggered off the platform and approached Garnet.

"Thank you."

"No problem."

"Curtis, you just let a guilty man live."

"He did it for Clementine... Garnet saw what happened, he wasn't lying. She confirmed that what Luke did was the right thing. You can't allow a rapist to live."

The guards let go of Clementine, she ran towards the stand, she ran up the stairs and then ran into Luke, hugging him.

"I thought I was gonna lose you."

"You almost did, if it wasn't for Garnet. Thank you again."

She smiled at Luke and placed on hand on her hip. "See what you almost killed Dad? Do you see?"

"Yes, I see. Come on I'll take you to the armoury, you can take your weapons and leave."

"At least offer them some dinner, Sir." One of the guards said.

"Okay, you'll have dinner first then you can leave."

"Okay."

* * *

The canteen was full of life, the same people that wanted to watch Luke die were happily eating their dinner, their lives hadn't changed from the incident but Luke's did. The whole situation caused him to think differently. Luke and Clementine stood in the line with their trays, waiting to get their meal.

"New rules. We don't kill if we're angry. Okay? I didn't feel it then but now I feel guilty, I know I shouldn't've killed him."

"I agree. Anger causes people to do strange things. I know that too well."

"Yeah."

Clementine and Luke sat down at an empty table, they looked down at the tray which was filled with lots of vegetables and a small portion of meat. That meat being a deer.

"Fresh vegetables, I haven't had these since, before."

"Carver's camp had tinned ones right?"

"Yeah but these are fresh. …When did we have that racoon?"

"Well, that was and then. Amanda found us… four days, then you found me… it's been two days. Thirteen days, two weeks."

"That's why I'm starvin'."

"Let's eat!"

Clementine and Luke couldn't have devoured the meal quicker, they were weak and had no fat reserves left, with the added running they wouldn't have been able to go far without more food. Quentin sat down at the table, immediately Luke and Clementine stared at him coldly.

"I'm sorry, I should've realised what it's really like out there."

"You can't imagine. You've done well for a camp."

"It's been here almost four years. We have fifty residents now."

"Still, every camp falls."

"That's being pessimistic."

"Ever heard of Wellington?"

"Yeah, it's a camp in Ohio. Some of our habitants came from there after they were rejected."

"It fell, one year ago."

"Really?"

"You don't know anything, do you?"

"Seems like I don't."

"Humans are more dangerous than a lurker could ever be." Clementine said.

"Are you guys ready to go?"

"Yes." Luke said.

"Luke, is it right to leave?"

"Clem these people execute. This ain't a good camp. It's fine to lock people up, but execute?"

"Yeah, but isn't it the same as out there?"

"No killing out there is different. You do it to survive, these people do it for control."

"The armoury is this way." Quentin walked in front while Clementine and Luke lagged behind. The walk was short but cold, the whole building was cold. They reached another cupboard near some changing rooms. When Quentin opened the door they were greeted with what looked like hundreds of guns piled high. Luke's machete lay at the front with his gun on top of it, next to that was Clementine's backpack, knife and gun.

Luke picked up his machete and gun, positioned them in and turned to Quentin while Clementine sorted herself out.

"Where's the exit?"

"If you follow me, I'll take you to it." Quentin walked off down the corridor with Luke and Clementine walking behind.

The three walked from the enclosed corridors and into an open area where the exit was placed. Lockers – some standing, some lying on the ground – were in the middle. Luke took a long hard look at them, he looked down at Clementine and raised his eyes back up to the lockers.

"You would've gone to a school like this. Used lockers like that."

"I miss school. I know most kids wouldn't but I do."

"Maybe I could teach you some Art History." Luke chuckled as if he knew Clementine would reject his offer.

"Thanks but no." Clementine giggled.

"Have you guys always got on? I remember my sister, we fought all the time. I wish I had spent more time being nice to her instead of fighting with her." Quentin sadly mentioned.

Luke looked at Clementine and then back at Quentin. "We, uh. We used to fight a bit when we were younger. Still do sometimes but we try not to in case it's the last thing we say." Knowing it was a lie but somehow referencing the truth. When they first met, Luke wasn't on her side but afterwards he was. They kept having arguments over the last year and so on.

"It's good to know some siblings don't fight. So, here's the exit. You better go now before it gets dark."

"Yeah. Well, I hope your camp survives."

Luke and Clementine almost reluctantly left the camp, knowing it was somewhere safe but they were scared to get close to anyone and they were scared the camp would fall.

"Wait, hold on!"

A woman in her early twenties ran towards Luke and Clementine. They turned around and looked at the woman.

"Please take me with you. I'm sick of being stuck in that shit hole."

"Garnet?" Luke said.

Clementine examined Garnet. She was resting upon her sword which was slotted in a sheath around her waist and was holding a backpack in her other hand. She had her hair lying on her left shoulder, it was long and blonde with brown amongst the strands of blonde hair. Her eyes were a vibrant blue and her face had no scars unlike other survivors. She was wearing a blue t-shirt with another buttoned shirt on top tied in the middle with the sleeves rolled up and jeans that tightly clung to her legs but were untucked, covering her boots.

"Why?" Clementine asked.

"Because I wanna survive, I don't wanna live there until that place is taken over or someone turns on us."

"You know anything about survival? Luke questioned.

"I've been training out here. Killing some of them, what do you call 'em? We call 'em walkers. Anyway, I was training with other members of the camp, how to shoot a gun, how to kill them with a sword but we were banned from leaving without a guard. Then the guards stopped us from training."

"Walkers?" Clementine asked but was ignored.

"How long you been in the camp?"

"Since it started. Y'know my Dad is the leader."

"He'd let you leave?"

"Of course not! I'm escaping. We should go if you'll let me come with you."

"Luke? We should only let her if you're sure."

"Fine, okay. You can come with us."

"Alright, follow me. I can get us into the cover of the trees." She said as she swung the backpack on.

The three walked out of the gate in a straight line, Quentin watched from the window of the second floor.

"Sir, should we go after her?"

"No, she was bound to grow up sometime. She'll come back if she wants to. I can't force her to stay here anymore."

* * *

The sky slowly darkened, it was getting to that time of year when the days got longer. More daylight meant a better survival but also meant you were outside for longer, closer to your death. Clouds floated away while reds and oranges took over what was left of the blue sky. The noise of the birds died down as the day got near to night. The trio were walking in a field towards the cover of some trees.

"So you guys are what? Brother and sister." Garnet asked.

"Well, you could say that but-"

Clementine interrupted. "We're friends. We met a year and a half ago."

"Been travelling together that whole time?"

"Pretty much." Luke said.

"Was anyone else there? Seems kinda strange, you would just start travelling. Something must've happened."

Luke's eyes drifted away from Garnet, he looked off into the fields and said nothing. Clementine looked up at Garnet and dropped her head.

"What happened? Something bad then?"

Luke finally snapped back he looked at Garnet and then Clementine.

He sighed, thinking of what he lost. "A friend of mine and I were comin' back from a stream, we were lookin' at fish traps. I saw some lurkers and when we got close one got on top of someone. I killed it with my machete and my friend took out the rest. The person was Clementine. Later, we thought she was bit by a lurker but turned out it was a dog. At the time our doctor couldn't tell. We locked her up in a shed. Huh, a shed… She escaped to get supplies for her arm, even stitched it up, and killed a lurker in the shed. We got her sorted out and I decided she would stay with us. We had to move on, it's a long story. Everyone, all six of our friends died in no more than two weeks. The group, we were with. They thought I died in a lake. I found Clementine a month after that and we have travelled together ever since.

Clementine looked at Luke she began to think of everyone and dropped her head again.

"When I thought something bad, I just thought one person died. Not six."

"More people died than them." Luke closed his eyes and stayed silent.

"How did they die, walkers?"

"Some of them… I don't wanna talk about it."

"It was my fault, if I wasn't careless with the dog, you wouldn't have found me and everyone would be alive."

"Clem, we decided we would share the guilt. It's my fault, it's your fault. We should've paid more attention to those lights… Dammit Kenny!"

"I tried but you got distracted."

"You guys have been through a hell of a lot. I don't, know if I wanna be out here. I've gotten used to people dying but from the cold or hunger. I'm not sure how the bite works. Oh no, oh god. I-"

"Don't come with us then. Go home. The outside ain't for everyone." Luke said.

"It took me sixteen months to get used to the outside. Eventually, you'll have to get used to it or, you die." Clementine said.

Garnet looked around in panic, she looked over her shoulder and looked off into the distance before gaining composure and stomping her foot off the ground.

"I'm sorry, I panic sometimes. No, I want to be here."

"Good." Clementine said.

"Keep calm okay?"

As the day plunged into night, the three had set up camp amongst the trees. Clementine curled up by the fire and Luke lay next to her. He stared at the tops of the trees and then at the twinkling stars.

"What did happen in those sixteen months? You talk about the first three months with Lee, you talk about when Omid died; you talk about everything we went through and what you went through when I wasn't there but you never talk about those sixteen months, why?"

"I don't because there's nothing to tell."

"You don't even talk about Christa, she looked after you longer than anyone else."

"Why does it matter?"

"'Cause something bad must've happened for you not to talk about it."

"Quoting Garnet? Hm. Okay, I'll tell you."

"Go on…"

"Christa was pregnant… after Omid she lasted a month. At that point, she knew the baby was late. She went into labour one night, I helped not that much but enough for the baby to be born. It didn't cry, it didn't move. And then…" Clementine began to cry before continuing, her voice crackled and broke as she talked. "It turned. Christa didn't want to so I, I had to kill it." She cried, louder and louder. Luke turned over and hugged her, she cried into Luke's chest. He brought her closer and rubbed her back as she continued to cry and mourn. "We didn't even check its gender. Christa was never the same she already hated me because of Omid. She would never talk to me, she would only read notes on bulletin boards. Ones that said things about Wellington."

She continued to cry; Garnet turned her head to the side, she observed the two hugging and Clementine. Knowing what her camp nearly did she turned over and whispered. "Screw you Dad."

Clementine's crying reached its climax, not talking about Christa for so long meant her _emotional bottle_ exploded with sadness spewing out.

"Clem, it's okay. I shouldn't've… asked."

"You, always."

"Ask the worst questions… someone's gotta do it, I guess."

Clementine closed her eyes, she began to think of Christa in great detail. "She's still alive."

"Probably."

* * *

Birds.

The birds.

The birds sang.

The natural alarm clock.

"ARGH!" Luke shouted.

"What?" Clementine asked, moving away from Luke's grasp.

"Just, a bad dream."

"What happened?"

"The lake…"

"You don't wanna talk about it."

"No."

"You guys sleep forever." Garnet said. "Had to take a watch or two. Not that there's many walkers around here, there ain't but I thought you guys needed the rest."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sleep." Luke said.

"I know you guys have been doing this for a long time. I thought you needed the rest, don't worry."

"Yeah."

Clementine sat up. She placed her hand on her forehead and rubbed her eyes.

"You have any food? Our journey will be long." Luke said.

"I have a lot of dried pasta in my backpack and I have carrots and apples that I stole."

"Apples!? Please, can I have one?" Clementine pleaded.

"Sure! You too Luke?"

"Naw, I'll have one when I'm hungry."

Garnet crouched down by her backpack and slowly undid the zip, she pulled out an apple and passed it to Clementine.

"You not having anything?" Luke asked Garnet.

"No, I had a lot of food before I left, I'm good."

"Alright."

"You call 'em walkers." Clementine stated while biting into the apple.

"Yeah, why?"

"I used to. Because of Luke I now call 'em lurkers. I corrected myself for a long time but I ended up calling them lurkers."

"Interesting…"

"Remember, for a brief time I called them walkers? After the, lake. I wanted to honour everyone and call them lurkers again."

"I remember."

"Hmm… Let's head out." Luke said.

"Where're going?" Garnet asked.

"We don't know anymore."

"We decided we would just wander until we found somewhere." Clementine said.

"Somewhere? Like a camp?"

"No, a house. We haven't been able to find anything yet." Luke said.

"Are you really **that **afraid of camps?"

Luke snapped. "Yes. They always fucking fall. If you don't wanna be here, go home."

"Wha… I didn't…"

"Don't push him Garnet. He's going through a rough time. He's not normally like this."

The bushes rustled, Clementine and Luke withdrew their guns – resulting in Clementine dropping her apple - they aimed at the bushes.

"What are you guys-"

A man rose from the bushes and held up his hands. He was dressed in a black long sleeved shirt with buttons fastening it together. He had short black hair and brown eyes. His face had been in one too many fights, one scar was cut across his forehead and a scar was clear to see on the back of his hand. And for his weapon of choice, he had a bow and arrows over his chest, somewhat reminding Luke of Julia.

"Andy!" Garnet ran towards him and jumped into his arms.

Luke and Clementine lowered their guns and put them away. "Andy?" Luke questioned.

"He's my boyfriend, I told him to come along if you let me leave."

"Alright, the more the uh…"

"Merrier? Sorry for the abrupt entry. I was making sure it was you."

"Nice bow."

"Thanks, that's a good weapon you've got there. A machete is useful."

"Definitely."

"Did you bring more food?" Garnet queried.

"Yes, all that I could carry in my pockets." Andy patted his trouser pocket. "Where are we going, north? South? West? East? Somewhere in between?"

"Clem and I were originally tryin' to find a place, a house where we could live."

Andy thought for a second, he raised his head to the sky and went deep into thought. "I know a place, yeah. It isn't too far from here. In the mountains. Secure."

"It sounds perfect." Clementine said.

"Yeah, it does." Garnet agreed.

"Lead the way Andy." Luke said.

"Right!"

* * *

"Once we're over this hill, you'll see what I'm talking about."

And so they did. Above the hill the four had been climbing there was a vast valley, v-shaped perfectly cut out, green mountains rolled on and on their peaks snow was splattered. The mountain Luke, Clementine, Garnet and Andy were walking towards had a stream trickling from the top to the bottom where it lead off into a river. Trees covered the surrounding area but the mountain was bare although it did have a path carved out, leading to their destination. The sky was a weak light blue, the sun had barely rose above the tree line and thin clouds dominated the sky, undoubtedly it had been a day of non-stop walking.

"I am, tired." Garnet said.

"Never had a night of no sleep?" Luke asked.

"No, have you?"

"Yes, many times."

"Luke's not the only one, I have too Garnet and I suppose Clementine is the same. You see, we're a different kind of survivor."

"Sleep is a luxury in this world." Clementine said.

"Yup." Luke said.

"Okay, we go up this path and we'll be at the house in no time."

"What's it like?" Luke said.

"It has two bedrooms, one with a double bed and one with two single beds. It's open, you walk in and there's two doors leading to the bedrooms, one on each side that then opens up into a living room and a door at the end for the kitchen which also has a table and chairs. It has a garden that's big enough to grow crops and it has a bathroom but it doesn't work."

"How do you know this?" Garnet asked.

"Because I lived here after the camp I was in before fell. That's how I know it's safe. I only moved on because a herd was nearing."

"Well, apart from the risk of a herd it sounds great."

"Yeah, we'd be trapped."

As the four continued towards the mountain, all life; the birds, the insects and the flies all disappeared, hiding away from something but it was unclear what that was. Andy began to run, Garnet, Luke and Clementine all followed behind, he stopped at the path that continued around the mountain.

"One quick walk up here and we'll be there."

"Let's go!" Clementine said as she ran off up the hill.

Before long the four had made it quite far up the mountain and beside them the house stood there, it was close to the edge of the cliff but was far enough away to ensure no one would fall off. Beneath the cliff, there was the stream leading off into the river, surrounding the river there were lots of trees. The path still continued further up the mountain, to the snow covered peaks. There was plenty of land around the house for the crops the group wanted to grow. It was perfect. Although, there was one issue. The door was open.

Luke withdrew his machete while Andy took off his bow, grabbed an arrow and placed it in the bow, he pulled the wire back and slowly walked into the house next to Luke.

The smell hit them first and then they knew, lurkers. The floor was covered in them, a lurker here, a lurker there; they were everywhere.

"Careful where you step." Luke whispered.

Andy prodded some with his arrow that was set to fire. "They're dead, I mean, they're really dead. Wounds in the head."

Luke approached the door on the right, the place was exactly how Andy described it. Luke opened the door slowly. Something or more someone was crouched over a lurker. Luke crept over to the 'lurker' he was about to swing when:

"Don't! I'm not a walker!"

Luke dropped his arm, the machete slowly falling out of his fingers in amazement. "Mike? Is that you?"

Mike stood up and turned around, he staggered back and shook his head. "Luke? You're dead!"

"Well, I'm alive. 'Kay? You on the other hand could be dead if you don't fucking explain why you left Clementine to die!"

"Clem's with you?"

"Yeah, but you've gotta explain!"

"Okay! We were trying to get away from Kenny then, Clem saw us. Arvo shot for no reason. Kenny would've killed us if we didn't run! I never saw Arvo after that. (If Bonnie is alive) Bonnie and I got separated a while ago, haven't seen her in months."

"Was it worth it?"

"No, not really."

Clementine walked into the room. "Luke- Mike!? You fucking-"

"Clem! You've… you've gotta see this." Mike said sadly.

"See… what?"

"You, you both need to see this."

Mike searched through a green bag, the one that once had the supplies in, he pulled out a green object, something wrapped in a blanket that was burnt and had many holes in it. He opened the blanket like a parcel, what it revealed was more closure than anything else.

"AJ!" Clementine said, she covered her mouth with both her hands and ran out of the room.

"Jesus, goddammit!" Luke examined AJ, his whole face was burnt and charred, pieces of his flesh had peeled off and his eyebrows and hair were completely gone.

Mike covered up AJ and handed him to Luke. "I saw the car crash when I realised it was Clementine, I investigated it and saw AJ. He was alive for a while but he died shortly after. I didn't recognise you, if I did I would've gone to the house… You can bury him."

"What'll happen to you?"

"I'm meeting someone in a nearby town. I guess this'll be the last time we'll see each other."

"Yeah. Well. Goodbye."

"Bye Luke."

Mike walked out of the room with the bag tightly in his grip, he continued his own journey even if he didn't deserve it in Luke's eyes.

"Who was that?" Andy asked as he walked into the room, now with his bow back across his chest.

"Someone… he was a part of my old group for a couple of days." Luke placed AJ on the bed and picked up his machete and put it away. "We'll have to clean up these lurkers."

"Yeah, it'll take some effort."

Surviving was one thing but hard work was another. Dragging those heavy bodies outside was tiring, putting them onto a pile was hard and digging a large hole for them was necessary. The day got warmer and every time another lurker hit the top of the pile it felt warmer and warmer. The sun had just passed by the middle of the sky, it beat down on the hard working survivors, they wished for a cool breeze to hit them but, it never did.

"What was that? Twenty lurkers?" Luke said.

"I'd say at least thirty." Andy replied.

"Are you sure? I'm thinking more forty." Garnet questioned.

"I'm sure it was only fifteen." Clementine admitted.

The three of them looked at Clementine as if she had just suggested they should kill each other, Luke was the first to speak. "Clem, it was more than fifteen."

"We better get these walkers in the hole. Help me push Luke."

"Okay. Hey Garnet?"

"Yeah."

"Can you and Clem dig a smaller hole, over there?" Luke pointed to a spot next to the house, it was an area that was constantly hit with sunlight and the soil was rich and dark.

"Sure."

"Why are we… oh, for AJ?"

"Yeah, for AJ."

"Wait, there's someone in that blanket?" Garnet asked.

"Yeah, a baby. Just dig the hole." Luke said.

Andy grabbed the legs of one lurker and Luke grabbed the arms, they swung it back and threw it into the hole. They did that for the rest of them until the hole was full.

"I'll fill it in, take some time to think. It's gotta be hard for you."

"What has?"

"Losing a child, it doesn't matter whose it was. I know how people get attached to people they shouldn't, especially when it's a baby. How old was it?"

"A month and a bit."

"Damn. Only a month? It had no chance, I'm sorry but it didn't."

"That's the worst of it."

Luke began to walk back to the house, to the room with the two single beds, the room in which AJ was lying on one of the beds. He slowly opened the door, he spotted the green blanket and picked it up.

"So many people died because of you. Carver, Rebecca, Alvin, Kenny lost his mind over you and Clementine would've ended up dying for you! I would've as well! I, I-" Luke cut off his sentence, he pulled the blanket back and looked at AJ's face. "I did this… you died because of me."

He covered AJ's face again, he cradled the dead body in his arms, back and forth, forwards and then backwards.

After a while Luke went outside with AJ in his arms. The sun was no longer visible, they were losing daylight fast. The moon was making an appearance slightly above the trees and the clouds hid behind the peak of the mountain.

"Is the hole ready yet?"

"Yes!" Clementine said.

Luke walked up to Clementine and handed AJ over to her.

"He never had a chance. If adults couldn't survive, then he was dead from the start."

"He would've got someone hurt, or killed."

"Yeah…" Clementine crouched down by the hole and carefully placed AJ in, she pushed the pile of soil on top of him and patted it down. She then traced 'AJ' into the soil and stood up.

"We'll miss you."

"Yeah, we will."

"I'm sorry, for your loss. It sounds stupid saying it in this world." Garnet said.

Andy walked up to the grave, he glanced down at it before guiding his eyes to Garnet and nodding. "We might be safe now, but we have all lost people. This world isn't fit for life anymore, it's not stable. It's broken. We're broken. But with all the upset and with all the guilt, we have friends. People we can trust. A baby would bring happiness in the old world but now, it brings death. Until we have communities that are secure, the human population will continue to dwindle however we should enjoy life because in this world, particularly in this world, every moment, every second could be your last."

"That was depressing." Garnet said.

"He's right though. This world is broken." Luke replied.

"I wish AJ made it, so many people died for his survival." Clementine admitted.

"I guess we should turn in for the night." Andy mentioned.

"I'll see you when you're ready." Garnet said before winking at Andy and entering the house.

"Hey, Andy. Just, try not to make a sound." Luke shifted his eyes towards Clementine indicating that she was still too 'innocent' to understand.

"Oh, yeah. Of course." Andy agreed, he ran inside just after saying so.

"You can go, I'll catch up to you."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I just wanna be alone."

"Don't take too long."

Luke watched as Clementine calmly walked inside. He stared down at the grave, at AJ's grave. In a way Luke put him there, maybe it was for the better. The alternative could have been worse.

Luke proceeded to the door, he looked to the side where the land ended and the cliff began. He loomed over to it, and right at the edge he glanced down; he fell back and embraced his knees. He observed the wind sway through the trees and the birds fly through the valley.

"You're not okay, are you?"

"No."

"What's wrong?" Clementine asked as she sat next to Luke, she crossed her legs and looked at Luke.

Luke pulled out the notebook, he flicked to the front and scanned down the first page. "Do you know why I began to write in this, I never used to but…"

"Why did you?"

"I wanted to see how much I had changed. To see if I would change." He flicked through the notebook to the tenth page, where he last wrote. "No more lies, if I'm not feelin' fine I'll tell you. We have to tell the truth, bottling it up is killing me." He grabbed the pages. "I'm not a leader anymore, all I have to be is your friend." He tore the pages out and ripped them in half. He threw them off the cliff edge. They all spread out, each piece of paper was picked up by the wind and was taken away.

"Okay. No more lies." Clementine got up. "I'll let you have some time to yourself." She went back inside and left Luke to ponder.

He continued to watch the surroundings, he gazed at the paper which had begun its journey to the bottom of the valley. Each piece floated down, hitting the edge of the cliff and being pushed out into the middle of the valley; they gently touched the top of the river before settling then sinking. He turned back to the trees where the wind brushed the tops of them and where the birds flew into them, never to be seen again that night.

"I was never fine."


	8. Chapter 8: Starting Again

"Luke just come inside!"

It had been so long, the sky was now completely dark. Pitch black, you could say. Clementine was getting frustrated, it was the third time she tried to tell Luke to come inside but he sat there, still embracing his legs.

Clementine sat by Luke again she leaned on his shoulder and gazed at the trees Luke had not taken his eyes off the entire time she was trying to talk to him.

"I never."

"What?"

"I never thought we would find him. I was certain he would be lost forever."

"We found him… You were right, he was dead."

"It was my fault, if I had looked! …Mike was there. He could've ended our pain then."

"He carried him around… all that time."

"I guess he wanted us to know, he never gave up."

"AJ is dead, he's really dead."

"It doesn't seem worth it… I wish, I wish I had died. In the lake."

"You've nearly died so many times? Why the lake?"

"'Cause that's where it started. That's where I should've died."

"But we wouldn't have had all these good times."

"Maybe you'd be better off."

"No… stop it. I'd be alone, without anyone. I needed you."

"Y'know, in a way. I wish y'all had listened to me. Leavin' Howe's that night was a bad idea. It was risky and Carlos… Sarita. It wasn't great."

"We should've listened, I know. But Carver…"

"He got us back, he wouldn't've killed us."

"Are you sure?"

"He had the opportunity to kill me but he didn't. Still, he was dangerous."

"What caused you to, as Bonnie put it 'Butt heads'?"

"Oh, that. Carver wanted to punish people by locking 'em up in the expansion, I disagreed; it wasn't even finished. We had disagreed on things before such as rations and who should do what. Tristan persuaded Carver to put me in charge of building the expansion. Back then, it was a death sentence. It had so many holes. Rebecca was five months pregnant at the time and Alvin had a feelin' it wasn't his baby, he became violent towards Carver and stood up to him a lot; he also got violent towards George, I don't know why. Carlos was under pressure from people getting wounded and he was beginning to see why Carver's way of doing things was wrong, Sarah was worried for him. Pete and Nick and his mother were fine and were tryin' to get me outta the job… Tristan escaped about a month before we escaped."

"Then you escaped?"

"Reggie was helpin' me build, we decided we were work slowly. Make sure there were some holes. I tried to get Bonnie to leave with me, she wanted to for a while but then decided not to. You see, I was in a relationship with her but she broke it off after she changed her mind. I didn't wanna leave her. The plan was in place and one night we all just ran. George tried to stop Alvin and Rebecca from leavin', so Alvin killed him. Just like that… Then Reggie tripped and fell. We knew Carver would try to get us back, he had an issue with that sorta thing, so we didn't go back for Reggie. About two weeks later we found the cabin."

"When did Nick's mother die?"

"A month after bein' at the Cabin we found that girl. I can't remember her name now. She was weak and tired, we thought we could let her die and then kill her, I guess we didn't really know how the bite worked. Nick and I lay her down on the couch and Nick's mom was watchin' her. The girl died, Nick's mom shouted for me and Nick, to y'know, do the deed. When we got to the room we saw the girl bite her over and over, Nick acted faster than me, shooting the girl and catching his mom as she fell. He cried over his mom with the gun in his hand. I knew what had to happen next, I steadied his hand and backed away. Sometimes… I wish I had done it instead, maybe it would've saved him."

"You didn't know how the bite worked?"

"No, we were sheltered for two years. No one knew, not really."

"Are you glad to have that off your chest?"

"Yeah… feels good to talk to you. I should've talked to you more, I didn't wanna burden you with how I felt."

"You should've, bottling it up all this time has destroyed you."

"Hmm. Anything you wanna talk about?"

"Yes… You know how I don't talk about my parents?"

"Yeah."

"I don't because, I can't remember 'em. I was young and my memory was never good…"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

Clementine closed her eyes, she took a long time to reply. "Seeing them, as lurkers."

"Oh… nothin' else?"

"Small memories, here and there but not much."

"I'm sorry… What's the most you can remember?"

"On my eight birthday, I took my Dad's hat and wore it all day. He never liked me wearing it, he always thought I would ruin it… now look at it, Lee's blood is splattered across it and it's worn and tattered."

"Your Dad would be proud of you. Maybe not for ruining his hat but he would be proud of what you've become."

"Would he?"

"Yeah! You're a brilliant little girl, better than any adult. I'm glad you're by my side. And I'm sure your Dad would be very, very proud of that."

"My Mom used to say that if you get hurt you have to continue no matter what and giving up is only an option once you've done everything you possibly can."

"She allowed you to give up? My Dad said that if I ever gave up with anything, I give up my motivation and that I would die. He could be forceful sometimes." Luke chuckled to himself.

"Wow. I thought my Mom was forceful. Maybe their rules are what have kept us going, we have always been scared to give up."

"Probably. That would explain a lot. Not that I ever believed I would die, I just wanted to keep my Dad happy."

"All I wanted was to find my parents. Sometimes I wish I hadn't."

"Annnd… the guilt is back!"

"We always blame ourselves."

"Survivors guilt. That's what it is."

"It's always the guilt."

"We should get some rest."

"Yes. I'm tired…" Clementine lifted her head from Luke's shoulder, she picked herself up and offered her hand to Luke who was still holding onto his legs; he grabbed her hand, slowly she pulled him up from the ground.

The two walked inside, tired and sad from their conversation as they approached their bedroom door a strange sound was heard from the other room. Something Clementine was too innocent to know about.

Luke clapped his hands together. "Okay! Let's get some sleep."

"What was that noise?"

"Nothin'… what noise? Let's just go to bed!"

"Luke… you're acting the way you do whenever I ask you… They're having sex! That's what it is."

Luke opened the door and shuffled Clementine in. "I said it was nothin'." He stated as he closed the door.

"Why won't you tell me?" Clementine asked as Luke took out his machete and gun; he placed them on a desk opposite the beds, Clementine did the same with her gun and knife.

"Because you're only twelve. I taught you about what it is very basically and what has to happen before you get pregnant but you do not get to know about what happens in-between. Got it?"

"Why does age matter? I don't care about having sex, I just wanna learn about it."

"I still don't wanna ruin that part of your innocence. Even if it doesn't matter."

"I should know, I got raped. I should know what they really did to me."

"No, Clem… I don't think I could tell you, it's awkward for me. Ask Garnet in the morning, she might be better."

"Tell me why everyone wants to have sex! I don't see the attraction to it."

"You're twelve, why would you?"

"What? Am I too young? We live in an apocalypse, no one is 'too young'."

"Some people would say different."

"You didn't answer."

"Yes… you're too young."

"Really?"

"I guess. People in my school, they only started to have sex when they were fifteen, maybe sixteen. So, you are too young."

"I don't care about it. I just would like to know about it. I wouldn't want to have sex."

"You say that now but it would be different once you're with someone."

"I don't think so… sex isn't important in this world."

"…It is… for your sanity. Before I had sex with Jane, I didn't feel uh, human anymore. Sex made me feel human again."

"Well, you're a man. From what you've told me, it's natural for you to have sex. But, maybe I'm different…"

"Nah, you're not different. If you find someone you're attracted to, you might want sex."

"I'm not so sure. I mean… if you tell me-"

"No… you're not doing that."

Clementine sighed. "I'll get the truth one day."

Clementine walked towards the window at the other side of the room, one bed was pressed up against it while the other bed was next to a wall adjacent to a wardrobe.

"I'll take this bed, I wanna be next to the window!" She looked out of it, directly below the window AJ's grave lay there, on the outside. "And next to AJ…"

Clementine climbed onto the bed and lay on top of it, she stared at the ceiling and placed her hands on behind her head.

"Don't you wanna get under the covers?" Luke wondered.

"No… I don't wanna get used to anything. We're always moving, remember what Julia said. That it's better that way. We finally found somewhere… how long will this last?"

"I don't know. A while, I hope. We'll be fine Clem, I know that word means little but I'm sure this time. Just sleep under the covers."

"No, I said no…"

Luke opened up the wardrobe, he searched through it for something he needed. Folded in the corner was exactly what he was looking for, a blanket. He picked it up, still folded. He walked up to Clementine's bed and spread the blanket out on top of her, she looked up at Luke displeased but satisfied.

"I said no… but, I'll take it."

"Now I'm the persuasive one." Luke laughed, he ambled back to his bed, picked up the covers and slid under them. "Goodnight."

"Night…"

* * *

Luke awoke from what had been the best sleep for a long time. It was still dark, not even dawn but he was fully rested, ready for another day of survival. He pushed the covers off of himself and sat up; he looked over to Clementine's bed, she was still resting peacefully. He stood up and approached his machete before turning away from it and quietly opening the door to leave the room once more. He continued to the kitchen door at the end of the living room, opening it he saw Andy sitting at the table next to a window with a cup of water in his hand.

"Hi Luke. Have a nice sleep?"

"Yeah."

"I was thinking we could go scavenging today. I know a few towns we could go to. Two of them, I've already fully scavenged although if people have died there over the past year then there'll be supplies. But, there's one town about a twelve hours away that I never got round to. It would be a good place to start."

"Good idea. Then Clem and Garnet could stay here and begin planting."

"That would work. We'd be gone for about two days, maybe three; you alright leaving Clem?"

"Yeah… I think."

"I'm worried that you wouldn't want to leave her. Garnet told me how long you guys have been travelling together. It's a long time to be with one person."

"It is. But, we're a group now. It's time Clem and I branch out to other people."

"Yeah, I was always isolated but meeting Garnet opened me up. We should go soon. Daylight doesn't last forever."

"Just let me wake Clem up."

"Okay, I'll go tell Garnet."

Luke walked in to the room, Clementine was sat up on her bed reading a book she had taken from the bookcase.

"Hey Luke. Thought I'd brush up on my reading."

"Clem. I'm gonna be gone for a few days." Clementine closed her book, put it beside her and stood up. "It'll be for a few days. Two, maybe three. You're gonna stay here, with Garnet."

"Why? Why can't I come with you?"

"I thought it would be nice if you spend time with Garnet."

"Luke, you know I have your back. I make my own decisions." Clementine approached Luke, she looked up at him with those eyes. Luke crouched down and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"It's just a few days. I think it's time we spend some time apart. Not 'cause I don't wanna travel with you or scavenge but 'cause I want you to have a few days off. You're still a child like it or not and you need time to develop and live. You've been through so much, just have these days to relax."

"Promise me you'll come back. I know it'll be hard to keep that promise but I'll come looking for you if you don't come back. Tell me where you're going. If you're not back in four days. I'll find you."

"Okay, deal." Luke stood up and opened his door. Andy was standing in the hallway. "Tell Clem where're going, I'll get ready."

"Okay." Andy walked off with Clementine back to the kitchen.

Luke strolled over to the desk where the weapons had been placed down. Luke took his gun and placed it in the holster. He then lifted up his machete and look sympathetically at it. He slotted it in and returned to the kitchen.

"Four days. Okay? Are you sure you know where to go?"

"Yes, I know."

"Andy, you ready to go?"

"Yeah, I'm all set." Andy walked up to Luke and handed him Garnet's backpack. He took it and swung it on one shoulder.

Clementine dashed up to Luke and hugged him. "I've got your back, even if you're not here."

"Stay safe Clem."

"You're the one who should be staying safe."

Luke smiled at Clementine before leaving with Andy. They walked up the path that lead higher into the mountains. Clementine watched from the window as they left.

* * *

The afternoon; it was bright, cheerful and full of opportunities. Or so they thought. Andy and Luke walked in to a town, a village. Small but looted to the last house. Almost nothing would be found there. The buildings had windows that were smashed and doors kicked in, glass and blood covered the tarmac and paper lay all over as the wind pushed them along the concrete. One blew onto Luke's face, he grabbed it and read it aloud.

"'Caitlin. There is nothing here. Move on before you die, it isn't safe here. I'm injured, you'll never see me again.' Great, people have died here. This is promising." Luke sarcastically said.

"Give it a chance. The other towns looked like this, had notes like that. There'll be something."

Luke turned around a corner of a building and noticed a figure, upon looking at it Luke realised it was a person, not a lurker but a person. He went back behind the cover of the corner, Andy then had a look around before getting back behind the corner as well.

"We can take him." Andy suggested.

"We could but there could be others."

"But we could take one out."

"Kill or…"

"Knock out, not kill. Don't worry."

"Okay."

Luke swiftly removed his machete and tossed it from his right to left hand then back to his right hand. Andy took the bow of his chest, took an arrow out, placed it in and pulled back the strings.

"Let's go." Said Andy.

Andy, still in a ready to fire position turned around the corner. The person was gone. Luke and Andy walked down the street, ready to 'knock out' the person who posed as a threat.

Every corner that came into view the two men would turn sideways and then back forward.

"Where did he get to?" Luke wondered.

"No idea."

They continued down the street when the man came out of the shadows and raised his hands, dropping his head.

"Kill me if you want. It'll be better if you end it for me."

"Why?" Luke asked.

"Kill me!"

Andy aimed his bow, pulled the strings back as far as he could and let go. The arrow spun through the air at an incredibly speed, the aim was perfect. It hit the man straight through the eye, killing him instantly.

"You didn't have to do that."

"I'm a killer. It's what my camp taught me. We were trained to kill, with a gun, with a bow, with any melee weapon. It was what we were forced to do. Don't kill, don't eat as we all put it. We killed walkers to train us. But one day we were forced to kill one human each."

"What kinda camp was that?"

"A bad one. A one where any innocent person could be turned into a killer. I was on my own for a long time after it fell, resisting the temptation to kill. I stumbled across that school months later. Some people came out to greet me. I almost killed them but Garnet was there… she calmed me down, took me in when they were going to turn me away. She let me be me again, not the killer I was trained to be. He still exists though, always there. He made an appearance, just now. That is the real me." Andy pointed towards the body. "That is the killer." He walk up to the body and pulled the bloody arrow from the man's eye. He wiped it on his trousers and let it drop into the quiver.

"I have actually heard of that camp before. Is it located in Tennessee?"

"Yeah. Where did you hear about it?" Andy said as he walked off further down the street with Luke.

"Ohio. There was a note written on the wall, it said something about a camp in Tennessee that trained people to kill and that they were lucky to be let go."

"Interesting. There was only one person that was let go before the camp actually fell. She was called Julia. She always favoured the bow like me."

"Julia?"

"Yeah… does it ring a bell?"

"Yes. Julia was my friend before the apocalypse. Last year I found her, she had a bow and a dagger. She was also with a guy."

"That's her. That's her! She left with one of our engineers. And she always carried a dagger with her."

"So we both knew her… that's, cool."

"What happened to her?"

"She was killed… knife in her back."

"Oh my god. What happened to the person who killed her?"

"He hurt Clem, so I killed him."

"How much did it destroy you?"

"How do you know it did?"

"Because the first kill always does."

"How do you know he was my first?"

"Because you remember every little detail about it. I know I do, I know all the killers did and I know you do too."

Luke sighed, Andy was right. He remembered everything to the last detail. How Julia looked when the blood poured out of her mouth. How Tristan put a bullet in Julia's head to aggravate him. How Tristan grabbed Clementine, slit her wrist and threw her on the ground. How the trees shook when he shot Tristan. And how he collapsed to the ground in terror after he shot Tristan.

"I do, I remember everything. It was over a year ago now."

"My first kill was over two years ago. I still remember it like it was yesterday. He looked like a bad guy, a beard, scruffy hair, blood covered shirt. They told us. They told us that they killed our people. Our job was to- to bash their head in- with a- with a- gun. To just- keep- hitting- no kill, no dinner. Turns out, they were our people. They made us kill our own people and for what? To make us into something that could easily kill a walker, a human, any threat."

"…I can't believe they would make you do that."

"Ever seen a head bashed in? It's horrifying."

"No, but I've heard one. Someone in our group wanted revenge. He hit the guy so many times, it sounded like he had bashed through the corpse and was just hitting the floor. I'm just glad I didn't have to see it but it sounded worse than what it probably was."

"Believe me. It is perhaps worse to see it than to hear it."

"I don't doubt it, I just don't know how far he went."

"Sounds like he went too far."

"Maybe he did."

The two men continued to walk down the street until it opened up to a park, surrounding it were a few shops and houses and one road that led off onto a main road.

"It's only small but there'll be something."

"Hopefully. Let's try that building first." Luke pointed to a grocery store, its windows were smashed and some remains of fruit sprawled across the path were in its last stages of decay, rotten like the lurkers that roamed the land.

"Okay. I mean, if anywhere has food. It has to be there."

Andy and Luke quietly opened the door, the smell reached their noses in seconds. Disgusting, rotten, putrid. Flies swamped out of the building, they had clearly finished off the fruit. Nothing was left. Luke walked up to shelves, they were mouldy and dusty. No cans, food or anything. But why would there be? This is a place that has been looted a thousand times. Although there is always something someone forgets, not this time. It truly had nothing left. Luke crouched down by some bones that were spread across the floor, a head in once place; the body was in another.

"Hey, there's some bones here. It's the only thing that hasn't decayed."

"I've got nothing over here. From the looks of this place, there is nothing that could be of use."

"Aw, don't give up on me now. There might be somethin' in the back."

"I have an idea!" Andy ran out of the shop without any warning.

"Andy! Shit!" Luke ran after him, once outside he looked both ways, no sign of Andy. "Andy!" He shouted but there was no reply.

Luke began to walk slowly, with his hands raising up to his machete. Luke listened out carefully, a quiet yet loud enough twang of Andy's bow could be heard. Luke ran in the direction of the sound, taking out his machete as he ran. The sound led Luke to the back garden of a house; it was surrounded by a large fence, trees could be seen towering over it and as Luke started to walk up to it, Andy hopped over the fence. Luke staggered back and put his machete away.

"Don't run off like that."

"Sorry but I found food! And a walker… Apples! In this garden. Come on, help me get them."

"Okay."

Andy jumped up and grabbed the top of the fence, he pulled himself over the other side and dropped down. Luke took a more gently approach, the fence had a gate; he opened it freely and strolled in.

"I didn't notice that." Andy said.

"Use your eyes." Andy and Luke both chuckled.

"I'm not sure how we're going to get the fruit."

"I, uh. I can get it…"

"How?"

Luke threw down his backpack; he ran up to the tree, jumped off its trunk, grabbed a branch to the side and pulled himself on top of it, with one leg on one side and one on the other. He grabbed an apple and pulled in off the branch it had been growing on, he flung it down to Andy and with a quick reaction caught it.

"That was impressive."

"I was a pretty reckless kid. Didn't know I could still do that."

Andy picked up the backpack and opened it up, he stretched out his arms and used the backpack as a way to catch the apples. "Think you got good enough aim?"

"No, but I'll try."

One by one Luke picked the apples off the tree and tossed them down. Some landed in the bag with grace others hit the ground violently. Luke inched closer to the trunk until that entire side was empty, he pressed his hand on the trunk and threw himself off the branch, as he landed he tripped over but gained balance and stayed upright.

"I think that's enough. The backpack is pretty much full."

"Good." Luke said as he bend to his knees and caught his breath. Andy handed him the backpack to which he placed it on one shoulder again. "Whoa. That's heavy."

"Apples are. We should head back. While there's still daylight."

"Yeah. We should find somewhere to camp."

"I'll keep an eye out."

The two men jogged out of the village. They knew fine well from their journey that towns and villages were no longer a place where supplies still existed. It seemed like the only food left would be food they would end up growing and from killing animals. Everything else was out of date and who would take the risk of eating something that could kill you without medication?

* * *

The sun was making its descent, the day was finally coming to a close. Much had been learned and some had been lost but the two men were beginning to understand each other quite well. They were walking on a dirt path, side by side up to the mountains.

"I was wondering. How did you get that scar?" Andy asked.

"Which one?"

"The one that goes from your forehead to your chin."

"This is a good story. The guy that killed Julia. Well, I knew him before this hell and then we ended up in the same camp. As a punishment for having sex with someone when he still thought I was in a relationship when I wasn't, he cut me to create a scar."

"Nasty, were you awake?"

"No, I was knocked out."

"That makes it slightly better."

"So, how did you get the scar on your forehead?"

"I forgot that was there." Andy chuckled. "I was climbing up a ladder and I fell, cut my head open on a bar of metal that had been cut off. I grabbed back onto the ladder and cut my hand at the same time on a piece of metal that was sticking out."

"Wow. Bad luck."

"It certainly was…" Andy looked to the side in thought and after a while laughed.

"What?"

"You had sex? In an apocalypse, that's stupid!" He continued to laugh while Luke shook his head and folded his arms.

"It was pretty stupid. I did it when I was meant to be watchin' out for lurkers."

"Oh, you idiot!"

"I know. But my friend had died and my other friend and my other friend and y'know she made an offer to well… So it was fucking idiotic."

"She made you the offer? I guess that makes it justifiable. You are a man."

"I wish everyone saw it like that. I was losing the plot, I needed a break."

"I understand. That doesn't make it any less stupid or funny though."

"I suppose not. Still, it was the only thing that took my mind off it all."

"Yeah, I agree. It does take your mind off things."

"Should we find somewhere to camp?"

"We could get up into the mountains and camp there until morning."

"Then from there I'd imagine we'd be travelling for another few hours."

"Yeah, seems like it."

Luke and Andy continued to walk calmly, up into the mountains. The mountains would cover them, both sides were sky high, no lurker would be able to climb up there. At least they hoped that was the case. Small piles of snow fell down from the peaks landing violently next to the two whilst rocks skipped down the steep sides like a playful beach ball.

"We should rest here." Andy said as he walked to a curve in the rock.

"Good id-" Luke grabbed his leg, his eyes widened. "Argh!"

"What's wrong!?"

"I don't. Ahh, know." Luke fell to his knees, in a swift motion he lay on his side while tightly holding on to his leg.

"What is it!?"

"My leg… it hurts- Ahhhh." His leg felt like it was being stabbed a thousand times, as if someone was stabbing him over and over.

Andy crouched down by Luke and observed his leg. "Your muscles, they can't take all the running. You need to get in shape. How often does this happen?"

"It never happens." At this point his leg felt like someone was twisting a knife in an attempt to cut open all the arteries and veins and to slice open his tissue.

"You must've twisted it, or something. Maybe all the running caught up to you."

"Yeah… Ahhhh, maybe." He let go of his leg and pressed his hands on the ground, pushing himself up to his hands and knees.

"We should rest here, I don't want you to put more stress on that leg."

Luke took serval deep breaths. "This leg, it can deal with it. It's been through more."

"That's why you should rest it. If it's been through 'more', then you should allow it recover otherwise you'll damage it."

"Okay. Alright, fine."

The camp they had set up was simple. It didn't have a fire, just two blankets to keep them warm and the cover of the mountains to keep them safe. They were tired but still didn't trust the landscape to both sleep. Luke sat up awake while Andy was settling down.

"The apples won't last long. Y'know how to hunt?" Luke asked.

"Yes. Not only were we taught to kill but we spent six months doing intense training for hunting."

"Perfect. I think I'll teach Clem as well. What about Garnet?"

"I taught her a few things when we were allowed to train outside but she doesn't know much."

"I guessed she wouldn't."

"How do you know how to hunt?"

"I was taught by my friend's uncle. My Dad also taught me how to skin animals correctly."

"Your Dad was a butcher?"

"He was a farmer but his father was a butcher, he taught him of course."

"Nice! I think I'm going to try and sleep now, I'm exhausted. Wake me up when you're ready to sleep."

"Okay."

As Andy drifted off, Luke couldn't help but think about Julia. What he had learned today was important, she lied to him about how many people she had killed. Who knew? It could have been two or more. All Luke knew is that she had moved on from being that innocent girl he knew as a teenager. She had become a killer and from the way Andy was, it was just as bad as Rachel's fate.

His guilt for what happened to Julia had been eating away at him. He had relatively been able to keep her death at the back of his mind but when Andy forced him to talk about it, he couldn't get the whole event off his mind. Julia's death kept repeating in his head constantly like an unstoppable lopping tape.

_"Do you have to go?"_

_"Yeah. But we'll see each other again. Don't worry, I- We'll find a way to see each other again."_

_"You were going to say you love me!"_

_"N- No I wasn't."_

_"Ha! Yes you were, you're all flustered now."_

_"Julia…"_

_"I love you too. Remember to visit!"_

_"I will, friends don't leave each other behind."_

_"You sound like Tristan."_

_"Hey! I came up with that first. Tristan started using it afterwards. Anyway, he got locked up after he tortured and killed people. I never wanna talk about or see him again."_

_"Hm."_

_"Y'know this could actually be the last time we see each other."_

_"Not on my watch. You know nothing can separate us!"_

_"Death can…"_

_"Don't. I know what happened to Nathan was awful but it wasn't your fault, you didn't know that guy would shoot him."_

_"Thanks Julia. We'll stay in contact, somehow…"_

"Why'd you have to die Julia? Like everyone else… I loved you! No one could ever replace you. Not Bonnie, not Jane. You were who I loved after all those years and all those girlfriends I still loved you…"

Because of Luke's emotional torment, Andy woke up. "Go on, let it out. Then maybe I can sleep."

Luke stared at Andy, he didn't know how to let it out, how to express it when he wasn't directly talking about it. He took a moment. "I don't- I loved her, I know that. I just, I know she could've lived." Luke eyes began to tear up, the corners welled up with tears and surprisingly Luke managed to break down and the emotions spewed out. "She was everything to me! I had already lost her once and then I thought she was dead. But good ol' Julia was alive, it only took her a week to die. Why did she have to do this? If I had killed him sooner she would be alive! She would! I know she would!"

Luke lay back, he couldn't see much as his eyes filled up with more tears. Andy never expected him to break down like that. He was strong and Andy had picked up on that, he was similar to Andy, always keeping his emotions on lockdown but Luke had opened up the wrong bottle that had been shaken up too many times and therefore exploded in his face.

"Oh no… Luke, I'm sorry… She meant a lot to you, didn't she?"

Luke tried his best to hold the tears back, he kept breathing in and out peaceful to keep the tears at bay. He used his sleeve to dry his face. "Yeah, she was the only person I truly loved and she's gone."

"I know it's hard to hear but you should move on, for your own sake."

"I don't know if I can."

"Okay… I'll take a watch. You can sleep."

"No, I-"

"Go to sleep."

"You're not gonna let me have first watch are you?"

"No."

The two of them easily changed positions. Luke fell asleep while Andy watched out for lurkers.

* * *

"Luke! Luke!"

"Huh?"

"You wouldn't wake up. Not such a busy night after all."

"You didn't wake me up for a watch?"

"I, fell asleep. At least nothing got us!"

"Good job. Eh, everyone makes mistakes I guess."

"Trust me, this place is secure. It doesn't matter much."

The sun could be seen rising above the mountain. Andy rolled up the blankets and pushed them into the backpack next to him. He handed it to Luke and smiled in hope that Luke wouldn't blame him for falling asleep on the job, however, in hindsight falling asleep on the job is better than having sex instead of doing your job.

"Ready?" Andy asked.

"Yeah." Luke said as he put the backpack on.

The hours passed, the sun was enjoying beating down on the two men, making them sweat. The sky was one of the brightest blues of the year, no clouds could be seen therefore they couldn't ruin the pleasant day. Andy and Luke were almost home, they were climbing back up the 'hill' that lead straight down to the house.

"I'm glad to be back." Andy said.

"It is nice to have somewhere to return to again."

"A place to call home."

Luke and Andy reached the top and ran down it and continued to run until they reached the front door.

Andy opened the door with joy and shouted: "We're home!"

Garnet came out of the kitchen. "Hi! Didn't take you three days then." Andy walked up to Garnet. "There wasn't much there…"

Luke ignored the conversation and strolled into his bedroom. Clementine was curled up in her bed, under the covers.

"Hey Clem!"

"Go away."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Luke slightly ran over to Clementine's bed, worried for her.

"What happened?" He asked putting his arm over her but she rejected that, turned over and pulled the covers over her face.

"Leave me alone!"

"Did something happen with you and Garnet?"

"No, she said that you should talk to her once you got back."

"Well, tell me what's wrong."

"What do you think is wrong!?"

"It could be anything. Guilt, grief-"

Clementine bolted up and angrily glared at Luke. "My period! That's what it is! Okay? So, go talk to Garnet!"

"Does it hurt?"

"Yes, it fucking hurts! Now leave me alone!"

"What have I done?"

"You left."

"I came back."

"Just leave, me. Alone!"

"Alright, alright. Don't bite my head off."

Luke scowled at Clementine; he got up and quickly left the room. Garnet, who was at the other side of the room approached him.

"Hormones are an evil thing." She said.

"Yeah, they are. She really snapped at me."

"She will, it's her first period. It only gets worse. I gave her one of my cloths I had spare, I told her to wash it after she finishes her period and I told her about them. She already knew quite a bit."

"I taught her a few things. Biology wasn't completely useless."

"Good. It helped her a lot; she didn't think she was dying like I did when I started."

"Thank you for helping her. I think it's good for her to have another female friend again."

"Yeah, she needs someone she can talk to comfortably about this stuff. We bonded quite well while you were gone. And we got a lot planted. This place is off to a good start."

"It is."

"Luke. Garnet and I are gonna go take a stroll. Are you okay staying here?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

"Alright. See you later."

"Have fun…"

Andy and Garnet almost rushed out of the house with smiles on their faces. They were certainly up to something. Luke ambled to the sofa in the living room and fell back on it. He stared at the wall and felt his pockets. Checking for his notebook. He pulled it out and gazed at it before opening it to the dates. Pages and pages of months, days. Finally he made it to the page with the current day on. Luke crossed it out along with another few days.

"What's the date?" Clementine said from the shadows.

"You sound less moody."

"Don't start."

"The 1st of April." Luke laughed. "April Fools' day…"

Clementine sat next to Luke; she crossed her legs and faced him, he still looked forward and was slouched on the sofa. "I remember that. I used to say it was snowing or something stupid like that to my Dad and he would believe me until I said April Fools'."

"Once Nick and I set off a stink bomb at school. It wasn't only us who were involved, a lot of our friends were. We ended up all getting a detention. It was worth it."

"Luke, I have something important to tell you."

"What?"

"I didn't start my period! It was all a joke!"

Luke scowled at Clementine, it was harsh. He knew what she was doing.

"I'm actually pregnant."

"Oh c'mon! Stop!"

"…April Fools'." Clementine giggled and Luke pushed her playfully.

"I saw that coming."

"I know, it was still fun."

"Clem we found donuts, y'know."

"Rea- Noo, I know what you're doing."

"April Fools'!"

The two were in a fit of laughs, normally April Fools' Day isn't as funny as this but they finally had time to unwind, that's what they hoped they would get once they found somewhere safe.

Clementine snuggled up to Luke, he was unsure of what to do at first but ended up putting his arm around her.

"I'm just hoping we don't become the same…" Luke said quietly.

"Isn't that what you said about Carver?"

"Yeah… I was just thinking, we are the same now."

"I suppose we are. We've killed, hurt people and done awful things to stay alive. What we did to get food from-"

"I thought we agreed to not talk about that."

"We were desperate, what were we supposed to do?"

"We… I don't know. We shouldn't have threatened him."

"We would be dead if we didn't."

"Probably. We acted like bandits… we ain't like 'em."

"What's your issue with bandits? Apart from 'em being, evil. You always seem scared of talking about 'em."

"I never did tell you…" Luke sighed, his eyes set on the window to the side of the sofa. "It was about May 2005. Times were easy, I was on good terms with Carver and Tristan. Everyone was happy, we had a good thing going. We went on a hunting trip, Pete's idea even though he didn't go. Carver wouldn't let him, didn't think he was trustworthy. Along with ten men, Carver, Tristan and I went hunting. It was going well but I got split up from 'em. When I found 'em again, they were surrounded by bandits. Instead of helping I uh, ran away. Carver and Tristan lived to tell the tale of how they took out every bandit but those ten men, they died. Tristan bullied the truth outta me, he wondered where I went. As soon as he got the truth he went to Carver and that's when the disagreements started. Before that Carver would listen to me and things would go the way I wanted but after that, it was never the same. He warned people not to trust me, not to follow my lead, said I was dangerous."

"I'm sorry. Sounds like it's been haunting you."

"It has, for longer than you'd think."

"…We are the same now. Not completely but we're getting close."

"Now that we're safe, maybe we can be ourselves again. That's all I want, I don't wanna be the guy everyone's scared of because I'm unstable."

"I was never scared of you."

"After I killed that man you were. I saw it, in your eyes."

"I know that wasn't you."

"Maybe it was. Maybe I'm just a murderer now."

"You are NOT, a murderer! Okay? You are a good man who has only done things to protect the people he loves! You were protecting me!"

"I guess… I killed Tristan for you and that man. I just, I hate to see you get hurt."

"And I hate to see you get hurt. You're my adopted brother… I love you."

Luke smirked. "You love me?"

"Yeah, don't you love me?"

"I do… I just- I just haven't heard those words in a long time."

"You're my big bro. We're family, it would be pretty bad if we didn't love each other."

"Yeah, it would. You're the best adopted sister a man could ask for, I do love you."

"Stop it…" Clementine smiled up at Luke.

"You are. Not many girls would be this calm about their first period even with education."

"You're lucky you aren't a girl, Garnet said men never understand."

"I'll try to understand. That's somethin' I can promise."

"You better not break it."

"I won't. I think. I probably won't. Probably…"

"Probably… you say that a lot."

"It was my favourite word as a kid. Y'know the word you just fall in love with and can never stop using. Probably was that word for me."

"I never had that."

"You even have a- Y'know what, never mind."

"What? What were you gonna say?"

"Nothin'. It was wrong of me to think-"

"What?"

"You even have a, uh dictionary…?" Luke said awkwardly.

"I know that wasn't it, but I never looked in a dictionary. I liked asking someone instead of searching for it."

"Makes sense."

Clementine closed her eyes, she knew women had to go through this cycle all the time. How was she any different? The answer was simple: she wasn't. She was finally becoming a young woman, she was no longer a little girl. Although adults, in the present and future would see her as that little girl, she knew what had started, she knew she was mature and she knew that made her adult-like yet she was still very much a child who lost their childhood before it had truly began. Clementine felt like her world fell apart but in fact she was still holding on and with support she would be able to climb back up and have a somewhat overdue childhood but that story was for another day.

For now, Clementine rested in Luke's arms trying to get to sleep while he just stared down at the notebook which at that point in time was battered and torn in places and at the pen that couldn't have much ink left in it. Everything will come to an end but the end can be many things. Some are confusing, aggravating; some are good while others are bad. For the pen and notebook, it would only be a sad end to something Luke had stuck to religiously.

Luke grabbed the notebook and pushed it into his pocket; he bent his head back on the sofa and let his eyes gazed at ceiling.

"Stop procrastinating. Just rest; I'm tired, you must be too." Clementine said quietly, knowing fine well Luke was thinking about Carver.

"I rested last night."

Clementine withdrew from Luke's grasp and glared at him for the umpteenth time that day. "Luke… if you want me to stay calm and not moody. Go to fucking sleep."

"Alright. Fine. I'll go to sleep, if that's what you want."

"It is. Now, you better fucking sleep."

"I will. I will. It's just, the fear of not waking up."

"Better to sleep and be alert than to stay awake and die."

"Morbidly put but you're right. Like always. I'll sleep."

"I'm still the persuasive one."

"I'm learnin'. Give me time."

"You'll never be as good as me." Clementine sniggered

"Hm. Nah, probably not."

Clementine lay her head on Luke's shoulder whilst he let his head rest to the side, slightly lying on Clementine's head.

They both closed their eyes simultaneously and plunged into sleep.

Garnet and Andy walked in moments later, Garnet was about to walk over to the sofa when Andy grabbed her arm.

"They're asleep, let them rest. I don't want to know what they've truly been through." Andy whispered.

"You've been through more."

"I've accepted what I've done, they haven't. Not yet."

Garnet nodded and the two quietly snuck into their bedroom.

Luke opened his eyes and looked around the room in panic, slowly he realised where he was; he let his eye lids drop, falling asleep with ease next to the one person who has kept him from breaking apart.

He was safe.

What he had become no longer mattered.

He was with people he could trust.

People who would become his family.

He was fine, for the first time.

The guilt would fade. The trip was over.


	9. Chapter 9: Empty Bowls and Used Forks

**Six days later**

* * *

Andy and Garnet. The nicest couple you could meet in the apocalypse. But today, today was a different day. The four of them had made the descent to the river and were sitting in the warm sun close to the trees, Luke was on one side with Clementine and Andy and Garnet were on the other. Although what was supposed to be a nice day by the flowing water quickly turned into an argument.

Luke and Clementine were sitting by the river practicing their high five techniques when they heard shouting from the other side.

"Oh, fuck you! Don't you dare say that to me!" Garnet erupted in anger.

"It wasn't meant-"

"Oh shut up! You've been like this ever since we started having sex."

"Been like what? This is me!"

"No it ain't! You're a killer, a horrible person, you ain't soft so stop acting like it!"

"Oooh, don't say I'm a horrible person. I had to!"

"Don't kill, don't eat. You're so hard done by."

"You've had the easy life."

"Really? That's what you're going with?"

"Yes!"

"Fuck you." Garnet gave Andy the cold shoulder, she glanced down at the river; a butterfly flew passed her head and into the trees, she relaxed her shoulders and calmly followed it. Andy almost ran after her but before he tried he noticed Luke who was shaking his head indicating she needed time alone.

Andy walked over to the other side, he watched as Luke and Clementine were still trying to perfect their high fives. He leaned back on the cliff; Luke waited a few minutes before even considering going over to Andy.

"I'm gonna go talk to Andy. Why don't you… Dip your hand in the water in the meantime." Luke made his way over to Andy, he leaned on the cliff beside him and watched as he stared into space.

"What was that about?"

Andy used each breath as a sigh. "I was being nice, she sometimes gets like this when I take care of her. She doesn't like to accept I can bottle up my emotions and think I'm still a good person, you know?"

"Yeah. I had a girlfriend like that once. Whenever something bad happened, I'd never show it. She didn't like that, thought I'd be cold after things and that was before this hell."

"That's what Garnet is like, she expects me to be cold after what happened and to be more guilt ridden with all of it but I can't, I have to bottle it up. I only opened up to you because I feel like you get me, Garnet, doesn't."

"But she took you in, shouldn't she be more acceptant?"

"You would think so."

Clementine knelt down by the river; she dipped her hand in and let the water bash into it, she giggled at the water as it forced its way through her fingers.

Andy observed as Clementine backtracked to her childhood. "She's acting more like a child."

"I'm tryin', really hard to get her a childhood. She didn't truly have one. She was only eight when this hell broke loose, I've been teachin' her child-like things in the hope that she'll let herself be a child."

"Good. She needs it, she became mature too fast."

"I know, she acts more like an adult than a child but I need her to have that childhood so she can have that experience, like we did. I don't want her to be the child that didn't get that. Even with the world the way it is."

"You would have made a good brother."

"Huh?"

"Garnet told me you pretended that she was your sister back at the camp."

"Well, in a way she is now. We agreed to kinda, adopt each other."

"That's sweet, you make good siblings."

"Yeah… I would do anything to make sure she is happy."

Clementine sat back on her knees and dried her hand off - using her top as a towel - she glanced over to Luke and picked herself up.

"So, what else should I do to act like a child? It is fun but I think we should be hunting for food not playing with water."

"What about water balloons? We have some balloons in the house." Andy said.

"That would be fun!" Clementine said.

"Great idea Andy."

"For now… I wanna be an adult." Clementine turned to Andy. "Is sex fun?"

"Clem!" Luke exclaimed.

"I wanna know Luke, I'm curious."

Andy looked at Luke nervously, he didn't know how to answer such a question to a child. "Um, yeah. It's fun…"

"Andy… Don't let her guilt you into it."

"Why do you ask, Clementine?"

"I heard you and Garnet the other week, Luke tried to cover it up but I wanted to know, what was the point? It seems like bullshit to me, like a joke. You can't tell me that's fun."

"Well… It is fun be-"

Luke elbowed Andy slightly, Andy glared at him as he shook his head. "It's not fun, we- I'm going to go back to the house." Andy left rapidly.

"Seriously? I wanted to know."

"Trust me, you don't Clem. I don't think you're mature enough yet."

"How would you know?"

"If you want this childhood so badly. Don't find out about sex."

"Fine… I will find out one day."

"Sure…"

"I'm gonna go back to the house to find those balloons. Are you coming?"

"Yeah."

* * *

Luke and Clementine began walking back up, just like the last few times they kept peering over the edge watching as the rocks crumbled off the side and bounced down the cliff.

"It's stable. Isn't it?"

"I'd say so."

"Your 'say so' hasn't mattered much in the past."

"Hey! I know our past ain't glamorous but, gimmie a break I'm just reassurin' you."

"I'm kidding with you."

"Okay, good 'cause my instinct is all I got."

"My instinct is better than yours!"

Luke snickered. "Really? 'Cause I'd say your instinct is as bad as mine."

"It's not **that** bad."

"Oh, insultin' me now?"

"Yeah!"

Clementine and Luke arrived outside of the house, they strolled in and their eyes focused on Andy running around the place searching through draws.

"What're you doin'?" Luke asked.

"Finding the, balloons."

"You have any idea where you left 'em?"

"Not exactly... Okay, to be truthful; I have no idea."

"Have you checked the bathroom?" Clementine questioned.

"No."

"I'll check there." Clementine darted to the bathroom.

Andy swivelled around and giggled to himself. "Next opportunity I get, I'm calling Clementine orange."

"Really!? Actually… I'd like to see how she'd react." Luke agreed.

Andy shuffled his feet and let his eyes drop to the ground, sighing in the process. "I wonder when Garnet will come back."

"Uh, I guess she will soon."

"I worry for her, anything can happen out there."

"There ain't nothin' you can do about it now. She's out there and she's got her weapons. If she had as much trainin' as she said she had then, I'm sure she'll be fine."

"You have a lot of hope Luke. Keep that close to your heart."

Luke folded his arms. "It's hard to, I've lost hope many times. I don't know how I keep hoping."

"Clementine…"

"What?"

"Clementine is why you keep hoping. You hope because of her."

"Hm. My hope was restored once I found her."

"In the forest?"

"No, she found me after we got slit up at the beginning. She thought I died in a lake, pretty much did."

"Wow. You've been through more than I thought."

"Heh, it hasn't been easy."

"Were you, different, before you 'pretty much died'?"

"I don't know… Since, the lake, I've been quick to anger and I was more willing to kill someone than before. I dunno."

"Well, that isn't too bad. At least you kept your memories."

"Yeah."

Clementine ran out the bathroom holding up a bag of balloons. "I found 'em!" She looked over to Luke and smiled expecting a smile in return or some sort of comment but he failed to do either.

"Luke… Stop it."

"Oh! Uh, sorry. That's great Clem!"

"Andy, what were you talking about?"

"The lake."

"Oh, Luke… Please, be happy. Just for a day."

"Yeah, yeah. Okay, I can do that."

"Alright! Let's go down to the river." Andy said excitedly.

* * *

Before long, they were down by the river filling up the balloons. It wasn't the most effective way to fill up a balloon but it was the only way they could do it. With almost half of them filled up Andy shot up and surveyed the area.

"Okay, I think we're good to go."

"But there's loads more to do." Clementine said.

"We can save some for another time."

"Yeah, I think that would be best Andy."

"…Okay, let's start."

Andy quickly counted the balloons. "Okay, there's nine balloons. So, three each."

"This ain't gonna last long. Wish we had water pistols."

"Next time…"

"Wait, you do?"

"Yeah."

"Great!"

"Can we just start?" Clementine asked.

"Yeah, sorry Orange."

"Huh? Did you just call me orange!?" Clementine burst into anger, her hands folded nicely into fists.

"It's my nickname for you. Clementine is a type of orange, it works."

"I think it's a cool nickname."

"See? Luke gets it."

Clementine let her fists drop, she thought about being called such a thing for a moment. "…Okay, I don't mind. I thought you were making fun of me there."

"No! Not at all!"

"Okay, let's start!" Clementine stressed.

The three of them, spread out but were stood in a triangle all of them in a stance with two balloons by their feet and one balloon in their hands. They all simultaneously aimed at each other.

Andy kick-started the countdown. "Three."

"Two." Luke continued.

"One." Clementine stated.

They all took a moment and all of them at once said: "Go!"

The balloons flew through the air, but it wasn't graceful, not one bit. The balloons struggled to make it to their destination but all in all they made it. Andy's balloon hit Clementine in the arm while her balloon collided into Luke's face whereas his balloon smashed into Andy's shoulder.

They didn't even take a second to recover they all dove down and picked up their next balloon and threw them in all directions. Luke's missed and so did Clementine's but Andy was on target and hit Luke in the stomach. Luke held his stomach and bent down which gave Andy and Clementine an opportunity with their last balloon to hit Luke. While he wasn't paying attention Clementine's balloon whacked him in the head while Andy's struck him in the leg.

"Ahah. Thanks guys." Luke said, he stood up straight and picked up his last balloon. Aiming at the two he kept switching, he had to make a choice, but who would he choose? Andy who had hit him in the stomach and leg or Clementine who had hit him in the face and head. He finally decided to hit Clementine; she stood there allowing the balloon to crash into her face, it was what she deserved.

"That was so much fun!" Clementine said happily.

"I'm glad I never used them."

"This was clearly the best use for 'em." Clementine said. "What else should we do?"

"Have a nice day by the river, that'll be good. No more arguments or guilt talking, just one day where we can pretend this hell doesn't exist." Luke thoughtfully suggested.

"Sounds like a plan."

"Okay, I'm up for that."

* * *

The three of them sat on the bank, Luke and Clementine went back to practicing their high fives while Andy had taken off his shoes and socks, rolled up his trousers and was dipping his feet in the water.

"Do you promise to never mention… you know?"

"Yeah, okay."

"Pinky promise!" Clementine extended her pinky finger and Luke did the same… Unfortunately he used his left hand.

"Oh shit, I forgot. I don't have a left little finger." Luke awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.

Andy face palmed. "You don't have a little finger?"

"You didn't notice?"

"No, I didn't… How did I miss that?"

"I, I don't know." Luke chuckled.

"You got bit and then cut it off?"

"Yeah."

"Well done." Andy turned back to the river and began kicking his legs.

Luke extended his other little finger and made the pinky promise with Clementine. She laughed at the sheer awkwardness of the entire moment.

Luke whispered into Clementine's ear. "Push him in."

"Noo." She whispered back.

"Go on, do it."

"You do it."

"I swear if you guys are whispering to push me in, I'm taking you with me." Andy joked.

"Haha, nah. We, weren't." Luke did a brilliant job at lying in which he couldn't have been more useless at telling a lie.

"Yes we were."

"Try me. I'll take you both in."

"I don't wanna." Clementine pleaded.

"Luke? You started it."

"I'm not taking any chances."

"If you're going to mention it, don't be a stick in the mud and back out of it."

"To be honest, I can't swim that well." Luke admitted.

"That explains it." Clementine mentioned.

"Now you know."

"Do you like pranks then, Luke?"

"Yeah. I was a prankster back in the day."

"You've told me about the stink bomb, what else did you do?"

"Okay. This story's good. Nick and I, we uh. We put a pin or two, or three or a few more than that- On the teacher's chair…"

"Ow… What did he do?" Andy said.

"Well, when he came around to sittin', he jumped up and screamed. He turned around and we all saw more than ten or so pins in his ass. He immediately left the room holding onto his ass and we just heard him screamin' down the corridor. The whole class looked at me and Nick and we just burst out laughing. Soon after that, the class couldn't hold it in anymore and half of us including me were on the floor laughing our heads off."

"Did you and Nick get into trouble?" Clementine asked.

"Nah, they never looked into it. The teacher left the school and never came back. He didn't even file a complaint or nothin'. I think he, uh, was sectioned after that…"

"You screwed him up." Andy remarked.

"Yeah, yeah we did. It was funny before we found out he was sectioned…"

"If you did that, then I guess you did worse, did you?" Clementine wondered.

"No, that was always the worst for outcome. The worst prank we ever did though, was making my parents believe I was dead."

"How'd you pull that one off?" Andy questioned.

"Nick called my parents and asked if he could come over. They thought I was at home so when Nick arrived he explained that I had snuck out and was jumping over some railings; Nick continued, sayin' I had tripped and ended up falling down some stairs, killing me instantly when I fell on my head. My parents started to cry… Then I came down the stairs and asked what was goin' on. My parents looked at me in disbelief and hugged me so tight that I could barely breathe. Nick and I had a lot of explainin' to do after that."

"Idiot. Did you get into trouble?" Clementine pondered.

"Yeah. I had to do every chore in the house for six months."

"You caused your parents pain, for a prank. The worst kind of pain."

"I didn't know what it felt like at the time. I had never experienced death or grief at that point."

"Fair but still, why?"

"We wanted to do something like those programmes. We went too far…"

"No kidding."

"Idiot." Clementine murmured under her breath.

While the three were joking and having a good time, Garnet stood behind the trees in the shadows. She stayed out of sight as she was contemplating going over to them or leaving for good. Her actions were rash, she would be out there alone but there was always the option of going back home, to her camp. She observed as Andy was laughing with Luke and Clementine. He was cheerful without her and she knew she didn't fit in with the crowd. Andy needed someone who could survive along with them not survive because of them. She snuck away, leaving the three behind, she knew she would be happier back at her camp.

"Hm. Maybe I should look for Garnet."

Garnet managed to hear her name, she knew she couldn't just leave without them knowing. That would spark an endless search, Andy would never stop until he found her, dead or alive.

"It's getting pretty late on, we should try to find her." Luke responded.

Garnet turned around and slowly she strolled out of the shadows, she smiled at Andy; Luke noticed as Garnet lightly walked out from under the trees, he nudged Andy and pointed towards Garnet.

"Garnet!" Andy jumped up and ran up to Garnet giving her a long and welcoming hug.

"Andy…" She withdrew from the hug and held Andy's hands.

"I'm so sorry!"

"No, Andy. I wanna go home."

"What?"

"I was gonna go a few days ago…" She sighed and looked at the river. "I need to go home, I don't belong here."

"You do!"

"No, I need to take my own path."

"This was your idea and now you want us to go back?"

"No, I'm going on my own."

"You're leaving me?"

"Yeah, I love you. I always will but I can't be with you." She let go off his hands, he almost ran after her but stopped. She was right, she didn't belong there. She left without saying another word, Andy watched as she disappeared into the shadows. Luke walked up behind Andy and placed his hand on his shoulder.

"It'll be okay. Alright?"

"I knew this would happen. She's a coward and always will be. I'm surprised she lasted this long."

"That's harsh."

"She was someone I cared for but didn't love. She was more like a really good friend than a girlfriend."

"So, friends with benefits?"

"Exactly… Anyway! This is our happy day, isn't it? We've got to be happy!"

"Yup!"

"Who needs her!? She was gonna leave all along." Clementine spoke out.

"That's the spirit Clem."

"Who needs her when I have you guys!?" Andy said.

As the three kept sitting and messing on by the river, the day was quickly coming to a close; the sun was finishing off its act, ready to allow the moon to take over for its performance, as it rose the lurkers welcomed it.

Four had now become three. The question was how long would the three be a three? The next day shortly followed, with new opportunities hiding from them. Time now was going faster than ever, safety allowed the three to sit back and watch the plants grow, it was better than watching paint dry.

* * *

It was around midday when Clementine hauled herself out of bed. The sun was already cooking the plants and melting the peaks of snow. But Andy and Luke had been working hard, making sure the plants were getting their water. Bucket after bucket of water was carried up to the mountain. There were a few failed attempts when Luke dropped the bucket off the cliff edge or Andy tripped and all the water poured out. It was a hard and lengthy job but it had to be done.

Clementine skipped outside and immediately saw Andy and Luke fusing over which plant needed the water.

"Useless." She said giggling.

"And what time do you call this?" Luke asked.

Clementine stared up at the sky. "Hm. Midday."

"Yeah… I tried waking you up but nah, you insisted in sleeping in."

"At least she got up." Andy said as he took the bucket from Luke's hands and phased out of the conversation.

"Hey! I was tired."

"Ain't we all?"

"Haha, shut up. I was reading my book."

"What's it about?"

"This boy was murdered and his father goes a little crazy. He goes on a rampage killing everyone in sight."

"…Well, that uh, I guess… You sure you wanna be reading that?"

"It's got a bit of comedy in it."

"Comedy? In a murder book? What has the world come to?"

"This world? Or the old one?"

"What do you think?" Clementine stared at him blankly and shrugged. "The old one."

"I've watered the last plants."

"Great. How much food we got?"

"Ten apples. We do have that dried stuff but I'm not taking the risk of eating it."

"That all?"

"Yeah."

"Guys, we could hunt today." Clementine said.

"That's an idea." Andy said. "We could teach her, with both of our skills she'll become a master in no time."

"Let's get our weapons. Only melee, we don't need any attention drawn to us."

"Right."

* * *

Hunting is no easy task. Especially in a world where there are few animals to hunt because of the groups old buddy, lurkers. But Clementine had to learn and Luke and Andy needed to find food to supply them with. The dried fruit and pasta were pretty much rotten and not worth the risk of eating and becoming ill. The apples on the other hand were in short supply and wouldn't last much longer, so, their last option was to hunt and to hunt well. It was just past midday and in the cover of the trees the three of them were walking in stance positions with Luke and Andy at the front and Clementine following closely behind them.

Andy was holding his bow tightly in his hand, while Luke kept his machete close to him. Clementine had her knife out, trying to mimic what Luke was doing.

Andy crouched down by an indent in the mud and traced it with his finger. "Orange, Luke. Have a look at this." He whispered.

"That's a rabbit's foot."

"Yeah, it looks like it's been here recently."

"Okay, lead the way."

As Luke and Andy crept forward, hot on the trail of the rabbit, Clementine took a moment to take in what the footprint looked like.

Luke looked behind him, he noticed how far Clementine had gotten behind. "Clem." He sharply said although still whispering. She lingered on looking at the footprint before leaving it behind and catching up.

"Sorry."

"Just stick with us."

Andy snuck ahead, he stayed low down and kept following the tracks of the rabbit.

"There." Andy said, pointing to a rabbit eating some grass.

Luke kept low and snuck around the side to corner the rabbit if it felt the need to flee. Andy placed an arrow in his bow, raised it and like every other time before this moment he let go of the elasticated strings and watched as the arrow flew through the air like an eagle, when it reached its coordinates it had lodged itself into the rabbit's throat.

"Nice!" Luke said as he stood up and walked over to the dying rabbit.

"Thank you, thank you. I'm here all week. …And every week after this one."

Luke picked up the rabbit and pulled out the arrow. Andy walked up to him and took the arrow back.

"Let's get back and get this rabbit cooking." Luke said.

"Did you learn anything Orange?"

"Yes, I learned a little."

"Next time might not be that easy. We were lucky."

"Hunting normally takes a lot longer than that." Luke said.

"Right. Things aren't gonna get better. They'll only get harder."

"Exactly."

* * *

Equipped with a pan sitting on top of a fire outside the house, Luke began to skin the rabbit with Andy and Clementine taking note as he did it. Peeling back the skin was enough for Clementine, the poor little rabbit. She couldn't quite stomach it, even though she had seen Luke skin a rabbit before, something was different; there was less desperation to eat now than all the times previously.

"You should be watchin' this."

"It was just surviving and then we come along."

"We have to survive too, anyways a lurker would've have killed it."

"You want to eat, right?" Andy asked.

"Yes."

"This is how we get food now."

"Andy's right, there's no more cans in date, fruit ain't in season all year and we got no other choice but to hunt."

"I know, it's just disgusting."

"Well, it'll look better once it's cooked."

"I'll go find something we can put the meat in." Andy got up and disappeared into the house.

"Okay, I'm done. Time to pick the meat off, wanna join me?"

"I'll try."

Luke picked the meat off rapidly, knowing what parts were good and what were, bad. Clementine picked a couple of bits off but dropped it instantly.

"Eww, that's gross."

"It's just meat, nothin' gross."

"It's gross."

Andy returned with three bowls and three forks. "I got these, thought we could use some forks this time, not our fingers."

"Nice."

"It's been years since I've used a fork."

"You remember how to use one?" Luke joked.

"Yes, I remember." Clementine sharply replied.

"Okay you two, calm down." Andy said as he handed the forks and bowls to Luke and sat down next to him.

"How long will it take?"

"Fifteen, maybe twenty or so minutes."

"You must be good at cooking then."

"Sorta, my skills ain't great but uh, yeah I can kinda cook."

"I'm deciding roles. You're the cook and the hunter, Clementine is the badass child who has the powers of persuasion and I'm the unpredictable hunter who has amazing fighting skills."

"Yay, I'm badass." Clementine said excitedly.

"Amazing fighting skills? Find a sword and I'll make sure you'll hit the ground gently."

"Cocky? I'll beat you every day of the week."

"Hey Luke, you have competition. This has never happened before."

"He's competition but you are sitting next to someone who uses a machete every day."

"And you're sitting next to a guy who went through two years of intense training. I see no boundaries, the killer might go too far."

"Ah, yeah. I forgot about the killer in you."

"The killer?"

"Oh look! The meat is coming along great."

Luke picked up one of the forks and began to stir it. "Yeah, it's cooking nicely."

"Why are you both ignoring me?"

"So, it's been warm today."

"It has, and my shot was awesome wasn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Guys, what am I missing?"

"Still a shame Garnet's gone."

"She was never going to stay."

"Guys!"

"We should take up a hobby."

"Hunting is a fun hobby."

"No, I mean something that ain't necessary."

"Dancing!"

"Yeah!"

"Guys! There is no reason to ignore me!"

"There is."

"Yeah, I'm not talking about this."

"He kinda only talked to me."

"I don't want anyone else to know."

"So ignore what he said."

"Can you do that for me?"

"Yes… I can."

The small slithers of meat sizzled in the pan joyously, it was their moment to shine. Although it was just meat, nothing too extravagant.

With time passing like it had gone out of fashion, the meat was done before the three even realised the sun beginning to set.

Luke used one of the forks to scoop the meat into bowls, once all the meat had made the transition to a bowl, it had been somewhat divided fairly; still the question remained:

"Can I have the bowl with more meat in it?" Clementine asked.

"It's s'pposed to be equal." Luke said.

"She can have it Luke."

Luke chuckled. "Okay, there you go." Luke handed the bowl to Clementine with the fork standing in the middle.

Luke and Andy were left with the bowls with the less amount of meat in them. The rabbit tasted better than any dried rotten fruit or pasta would.

"It's really tender. Even my Grandmother couldn't cook rabbit as well as this. Luke! What is your secret?"

"Uh, no salt or pepper and natural fire?"

"You know what, that is exactly it."

"What part?"

"The salt or pepper. My Grandmother always used to over season. Solution! Don't season at all."

"You are too passionate about this Andy." Clementine said as she giggled along.

"She's got a point."

"Reminds me of the old world. The smell..."

"Yeah... All those meals, as a kid smelling that while outside in the backyard was somethin' else. If only I had enough money as an adult to cook good meat."

"Did you not have money because of your coffee shop days?" Clementine wondered.

"Haha, yeah. College didn't mean a lot, all of that money… My father told me so."

"You went to college and ended up in a coffee shop?"

"Yep."

"Damn, that must have been hard. I wish I could have made it to college."

"It's not a good experience."

"Really?"

"I never truly enjoyed it. And it ain't all about parties and sex like everyone says, no. I barely got a date, I was too focused on gettin' that damn major."

"Oh, well. Fuck college… Um, yeah. Bad choice of words."

"Yeah man…"

The three polished off their rabbit, leaving empty bowls and used forks. The moon now dominated the sky, stealing the spotlight of the sun.

* * *

After the three dumped their bowls and folks in the kitchen skin, they huddled together on the sofa, with Luke in the middle of Clementine and Andy. Clementine was reading her _lovely _book, Luke was adding more months to his precious notebook and Andy had found himself a mouth-watering cookery book.

"Hey, Luke. You could make this."

"And where am I gonna get the chilli powder from?"

"Who needs chilli powder?"

"The dish does."

"Guys! A line in this book is relatable to us."

"Read it."

"Okay. It was, un- uncon, ceivable; his world fell apart that day and he knew, he knew that the killing spree wouldn't be over until he stopped feeling guilty, but that wasn't possible."

"It's possible to stop feeling guilty, but you have to let go first." Andy said.

"You've let go?"

"Some of it, I had to."

"What is **your **secret?"

"Telling yourself every day that you did the right thing and there was no other choice. After a while, you begin to believe it."

"I can see how that would work but I wanna remember what I did wrong. I can't make the same mistakes twice if I remember what I did wrong in the past."

"The trouble is you do. If your mistake in the past was killing someone out of anger, you're going to do it again."

"No, I won't because I almost died for that twice."

"Andy, you're wrong. We need to remember. The guilt is what eats away at us but it's what powers us. Our past is dark but our future doesn't have to be."

"Huh. Never thought of it that way. My past though, it's darker than pitch black caves."

Luke, realising how depressing the mood was, quickly found a way to change the subject; he scanned the front cover of the cooking book and read the title. "Empty bowls and used forks. What? That's the name of the book?"

"I think it's funny." Andy said, perking up from his depressing mood.

"That's cool." Clementine said.

Luke analysed the title. "I guess it makes it sound like whatever you're cooking is gonna be good."

The three guffawed at the name of a book, it was giving them joy which undoubtedly was something unusual but it made sense. Empty bowls and used forks is light-hearted and quite funny at the end of the day.

"What food do y'all miss?"

"Cake!" Clementine cried out.

"Spicy stuff for me. What about you Luke?"

"Bacon. What can I say? Who doesn't love bacon?"

"We all miss completely different food." Andy remarked.

"Different and, brilliant food."

"Nothing can beat cake!"

"Bacon is better than cake. As my ancestors used to say… Bacon from Ice!"

"But spicy food is amazing!"

"We're all crazy!" Clementine joked.

"That we are, that we are Clem."

The three turned back to their activities. Luke began to sketch on a page full of tiny drawings, Clementine got lost in the book's world and Andy drooled over the pictures of food. All fun to each of them. They were enjoying themselves, making good times out of the bleak world.

Clementine snapped out of her book, she glanced down at Luke's notebook to be greeted with some creative illustrations. "Those are beautiful drawings."

"Thank you."

"What is that?" Clementine pointed to an oddly shaped creature on the page.

"It's a platypus."

"What is that?"

Luke chuckled to himself while Andy admired his drawings. He pointed to a plate of food and merely said:

"Can you draw this for me?"

Luke continued to laugh. "Yeah." He said as he was laughing, it sounded more like 'Yeeaaheheh'.

"But what is that?"

"A mammal that can lay eggs and is aquatic."

"What? How? How!?"

"Evolution."

Andy sniggered. "A mammal that can lay eggs, that's, that's interesting."

"Laugh all you like, it's real."

"Yeah, yeah. Look at this joker Orange."

"I believe it's real."

"Okay, okay. Tell me when you see one."

"They live in Australia."

"Now we'll never know if you're lying or not."

"I'm not lying!"

Andy burst out laughing, his laughter was infectious; all three of them laughing uncontrollably as if they had known each other for years. Friendships are short lived in the apocalypse and laughing was a rare occurrence however something had clicked with the three that allowed them to act like best friends; while Luke and Clementine had known each other for a lot longer, Andy had only been with them for a week but a week is all it takes in the apocalypse.

"So, about those water pistols…" Luke said.

"We can use them tomorrow."

"Do you know where they are? Will I have to find 'em again?" Clementine said, giggling away.

"They are in- No, I don't." Andy said as he face palmed.

"Don't worry we'll find 'em."

"It's gonna be fun!" Clementine said.

"Hell yeah."

"I have the best aim. I'll win." Andy said.

"Hey! You should let me win, after all I am a child."

"Clem, you are far from a child."

"Okay… You should let me win, after all I am acting like a child for my own benefit. Is that better?"

"Yep."

"We'll see who wins… If we can find the water pistols…"

"Clem! I guess it'll be up to you!"

"Of course! Because I'm the true adult and you guys are the kids."

"Pretty much." Luke said.

"She's right! It has to be said."

"I'm always right."

* * *

The three had returned to the outside, they sat on the cliff edge… Okay, that was a lie. They were far enough from the cliff edge in order to be safe. Luke sat with his knees close to his chest once more, wrapping his arms around them to keep them still. Clementine sat with her legs crossed, the school sitting method never leaves you. Andy lay back pushing himself up on an angle with his hands, it couldn't have been too comfortable. They enjoyed the light of the sunset, creating a picturesque view of the valley below them. The trees cast shadows over the river while the stream was reflecting light back into the direction of the sun like a game of ping-pong.

"The walkers walk everywhere." Andy thought aloud.

"The lurkers lurk in the shadows." Luke continued.

"The roamers roam the land." Clementine joined in.

"The biters bite their victims."

"The zombies rose like the religions said."

"But now humans are fighting back."

"We cannot be stopped by some petty walker."

"We've come too far for that."

"We will survive."


End file.
